Nico Rosberg’s scathing Lance Stroll criticism: ‘If it was any other driver, he’d be out’

Henry Valantine
Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll, pictured during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll is coming under increasing pressure at the team.

Nico Rosberg believes that Lance Stroll would be cast aside by Aston Martin on his current trajectory “if it was any other driver”, given his current form.

Stroll showed enormous frustration after qualifying 17th for the Qatar Grand Prix on Friday, throwing his steering wheel out of his car and appearing to shove his personal trainer out of the way in the garage as he exited.

他正在努力匹配队友费尔南多阿龙o so far this season, and the two-time World Champion has asserted an increasing degree of authority over the Canadian at Aston Martin as the year has progressed.

Nico Rosberg criticises ‘really bad behaviour’ from Lance Stroll

Stroll came in for hefty criticism for how he handled himself after his latest exit in Q1, while Alonso eventually qualified fourth for Sunday’s race.

2016 World Champion Rosberg looked to empathise with Stroll’s position, given the added pressure of being the son of the team owner and how much attention will be on him as a result, but believes he should have handled himself better on Friday.

“I mean, the behaviour there was poor, that steering wheel costs more than £20,000,” Rosberg said on Sky Sports F1.

“He scratched the top of the car by throwing it, scratched the paint of his car, pushed his trainer away and everything.

“That’s not on, not for the mechanics, not for the trainer, not for anybody. That’s really bad behaviour.

“But of course, in a way I can relate because it’s really painful, it’s a real struggle when you’re so far off.

“你不知道这是怎么回事,社交媒体是taking you on and speaking badly about you – it’s really hard.

“Plus you’re in that situation where you are the son of the boss, so even internally, the pressure will be building a lot. So I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.”

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With Alonso holding 174 points heading into the weekend compared to just 47 for Stroll, the resurgent McLaren are 49 points behind andAlonso admitted that Aston Martin are likely to be overtakenby their rivals in the Constructors’ standings come season’s end.

With there being such a difference between the two Aston Martin drivers in terms of points, Rosberg believes that any other team would have signed someone else by now – even though Stroll has shown in the past he has the pace to compete.

“Well, if it was any other driver he’d be out for next year, with the way that it’s going at the moment and with the expectation the team has, they want to go to get podiums and wins,” Rosberg stated.

“But we have to say at the same time that Lance deserves to be there, in theory, because he in theory is quick enough.

“I mean, he was at the beginning of season there or thereabouts with Fernando, who’s one of the greatest of all time.

“So that’s fine as a number two, so I don’t know what’s going wrong there, but it’s a really difficult situation.”

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