At the end of 2024, Lance Stroll was in the longest point-less run in his Formula 1 career. Given the quality of cars he’s had to drive in some past seasons – notably Williams’ poor 2018 car which left them last in the championship – that is a startlingly poor run.
No doubt last year’s Aston Martin was a disappointment compared to the quality of car he enjoyed the year before. But his team mate Fernando Alonso scored points in more than half of the last 11 races of the year where Stroll contributed nothing.
Earlier in the season, when the AMR24’s handling was more benign, Stroll produced some decent performances and even led Alonso home at times. His best result, in Australia, was boosted by his team mate’s post-race penalty.
He began the year with an impressive recovery from last on the first lap to claim the final point. He also climbed to ninth in Imola and produced a solid performance in Austria, albeit unrewarded.
Lance Stroll
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 8 (x3) | 18 |
| GP finish | 6 | 19 (x2) |
| Points | 24 | |
But the majority of his season was unimpressive. At times the gap between him and Alonso grew far too large, such as in Suzuka, where Stroll finished a minute in arrears.
Then there were the times Stroll committed unacceptably poor errors. He had the same crash twice in Jeddah, drove into Daniel Ricciardo during a Safety Car period in Shanghai and bafflingly drove into Lewis Hamilton during practice in Spain. His pre-race crash at the Brazilian Grand Prix was perhaps the most embarrassing retirement any driver suffered all year.
He was clearly unhappy with his car’s handling in the latter stages of the season, but so was Alonso, yet he persevered. That is a quality we saw little of from Stroll in 2024.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.
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Formula 1