Lance Stroll was topping the majority of the headlines last weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix, after the Aston Martin driver pushed his personal trainer.
The Canadian’s anger at being eliminated in Q1 once again was on show to the world at the Lusail International Circuit last Friday evening, with his rampage having started by throwing his steering wheel of the car.
This was followed by him pushing his personal trainer with some aggression, as Stroll was adamant on going out of the back of the garage.
Stroll’s trainer was trying to get him to go out of the front to get weighed, as per the sport’s regulations.
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This was followed by a six-word interview to F1’s official broadcast team, one of which had to be apologised for as it was explicit.
Social media instantly blew up with comments insisting that Stroll is dropped, given the way he treated his team.
Even the FIA’s compliance officer is now “in discussion” with Stroll, “in relation to several incidents that may have contravened FIA rules, policies and procedures” last weekend.
Given how public Stroll’s unacceptable behaviour was, little was said by the Silverstone-based outfit, who have instead defended the 24-year-old.
Stroll himself tried to brush off the incident by insisting that he’s “bros” with his personal trainer, who he admitted were on good terms after the shove.
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has since stated that “emotions is what” F1 wants, but that drivers’ instant reactions shouldn’t necessarily be judged due to the adrenaline flowing through their body.
Krack believes the drivers deserve a “bit more respect”, something which doesn’t really give the message that what Stroll did was unacceptable.
“To be honest I always try to delay [interaction] as long as possible to get rid of the adrenaline,” Krack said, as reported by The Race.
“I’m sure we run 10-20 times less adrenaline on the pitwall than the drivers do, but you put the microphone straight away in front of them, or you gauge every reaction that they do.
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“Emotions is what we want from sportsmen and then if they react, we judge them quickly – ‘is this right, is this wrong?’ – we need to be careful with that.
“We want to see it, because then we have something to talk about, but I think it goes one step too far that people sit down on a sofa or in an air-conditioned room and say ‘this is too much’ or ‘you cannot do that’.
“I think we need to have a bit more respect for the drivers.”