It’s Time for Lance Stroll’s F1 Experiment to End

The 2024 Chinese Grand Prix revived the Shanghai circuit as a regular part of Formula 1's calendar after a long five-year absence, and the action-packed weekend delivered on the hope that this reintroduction would be a memorable one. Most memorable, though, was a disastrous restart that saw Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll plow into the back of Daniel Ricciardo, then double down on his insistence that it was Ricciardo being an «idiot.» The ridiculous maneuver and the response after the fact is proof that it's time for Lance Stroll's Formula 1 experiment to end.

As the field restarted the Chinese Grand Prix on Lap 27, several cars bunched up at Shanghai's hairpin. It was a frustrating move, but for the drivers paying attention, it was pretty simple to slow down and avoid disaster. Lance Stroll found that more difficult, and he plowed into the back of Ricciardo's Visa Cash App RB machine so hard that its rear wheels lifted into the air. 

On the broadcast, Stroll was reported as saying «This idiot just slammed on the brake» in the aftermath of the crash (though it should also be noted that it's not fully clear that he was talking about just one person and not «these idiots»). 

Ricciardo's race was forced to an abrupt end thanks to the damage sustained in the accident, so he was understandably annoyed in the post-race media pen to discover that Stroll had shifted the blame onto an «idiot» other than himself.

«That made my blood boil, because it's clear as day, and it's also behind a safety car,» Ricciardo said of Stroll's response to the crash. «The only thing you've got to do is watch the car in front. We can't predict what the leader is going to do. We can't assume that we're going to go into Turn 14. The race doesn't start until the control line.

»I'm doing my best not to say what I want to say, but fuck that guy—and I'm being nice still. But if that's what he thinks, I'm like… yeah."

He also added to The Race, «All you have to do is worry about me in that situation, and he clearly wasn't. [...] It's not like he just tapped me and gave me a puncture or something. He went underneath my car. He hit me so fast, it's not an unlucky thing where he just tapped me.» The