Lance Stroll during a media briefing

Lance Stroll’s furious rant at British GP sparks calls for Aston Martin apology

17:48, 16 Jul

Updated: 17:49, 16 Jul

bySamson Ero

Lance Stroll has been urged to apologise after his harsh statement about the Aston Martin AMR25 car. The Canadian driver went on a tirade, describing the car with expletives following the conclusion of the British Grand Prix.

The 27-year-old, who had started the Silverstone race in 18th place, made steady progress up the grid during the wet-weather race and, at some points, was running in third place. However, Stroll would subsequently slide down the order and complete the 52-lap race in seventh place.

Nonetheless, while the race marked the first time since the Chinese Grand Prix that the Canadian scored points, he appeared far from pleased. During his post-race radio exchange with his engineer, Gary Gannon, he stated:

“Crazy is an understatement. I mean, it’s the worst piece of sh*t I’ve ever driven in my life, to be honest. But it’s okay. Seventh.”

The words of the Aston Martin driver appear to have displeased Ralf Schumacher, who, on a recent edition of the Sky Deutschland Backstage Pitlane podcast, called for the Montreal native to apologise.

“I have to say, this statement is very disappointing, and quite honestly, it’s a question of manners, you have to consider the external impact. The mechanics work there day in, day out so that the two can race – and then the boss’s son comes along and says: ‘Wonderful, and with such a crappy car.’ I have to say, that’s completely unacceptable. That’s an absolute no-go.”

“It’s unspeakable and indicates a poor upbringing. I don’t know what movie hero he thinks he is, but such statements diminish his own results. Dear Lance, apologise to the team,” the 50-year-old concluded.

How Lance Stroll reacted following the conclusion of the British Grand Prix

Lance Stroll in the press conference

Following his rather unsavoury rant about the Aston Martin challenger, Lance Stroll took to the media to share his thoughts on his British Grand Prix race. The 27-year-old, who appeared much calmer, analysed how difficult it was to stay ahead of the pack due to tyre degradation.

Sharing his thoughts with the media, including GPblog, he stated:

“I think the result was good. I think we had a lot of degradation and couldn’t really fight with that kind of degradation,” he said.

“The Sauber had a lot more grip, so they had a much, much faster car. I think with the degradation we had, we couldn’t have gotten a better result. Honestly, I was barely able to stay on the track at the end with the soft tyre because it was just completely grained."

“And also the intermediate tyre – just losing 20 seconds of race time compared to the Sauber at one point in the race – just huge degradation. With that kind of deg, it’s going to be hard to fight. But it’s a good result, good strategy calls. So that was good.”

Stroll’s outing at the Aston Martin team’s home race brings an end to his nine-race barren run. His seventh-place finish also moves him ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso in the Drivers’ Standings.