Lance Stroll has responded to strong criticism from Daniel Ricciardo for the on-track incident that led to the Aussie retiring from the Chinese Grand Prix, as an F1 expert calls for the Aston Martin driver to be sacked.
One of the biggest talking points from the Chinese GP was the collision between Ricciardo and Stroll at the Turn 14 hairpin during a Safety Car restart.
The back of Ricciardo’s RB car was struck by Stroll, causing significant damage to the Australian’s rear wing.
Ricciardo, 34, was on track to compete for a points finish, but instead had to retire as a result of the collision.
The Aussie was visibly annoyed about Stroll blaming him for the incident when interviewed after the race.
Lance Stroll, attempting to not look like an idiot for ramming into Daniel Ricciardo under a safety car, blames the “Constantina Effect” not once, but twice.
I would assume he meant to say “concertina effect”, except I’m convinced the Constantina Effect actually refers to an… pic.twitter.com/77UtXEUXeC
— Patrick Jolicoeur (@pattyjolicoeur) April 22, 2024
Daniel Ricciardo wasn’t happy with Lance Stroll after a collision in the Chinese Grand Prix
‘I’d slowly started to calm down and then I was told what Lance thinks of the incident,’ Ricciardo said.
‘And apparently I’m an idiot. And it was my fault.
‘So, that made my blood boil. Because it’s clear as day – and it’s also behind a safety car.
Stroll has justified his actions during the race, blaming the ‘concertina effect’ for the ‘weird’ incident.
‘I think it was a concertina effect in the hairpin,’ he told Formula1.com.
‘Someone braked in front and then I think it was like everyone kind of braked. The car in front of me just stopped right in front of me, I had nowhere to go and, yeah, it was just one of those really weird racing incidents.’
The stewards gave Stroll a 10-second penalty for the incident.
On whether he would challenge the penalty, the Canadian replied: ‘I don’t understand it.
Ricciardo’s Chinese Grand Prix was ruined when Stroll went into the back of him
Stroll blamed the ‘concertina effect’ for the collision, calling the incident ‘weird’
‘It was just one of those concertina effect racing incidents, which I guess because I was the one that hit the guy in front of me that I got the penalty, but I think someone caused that in front of him. Someone hit the brakes and, yeah, it’s a weird one.’
Stroll hasn’t just drawn the criticism of race fans and Ricciardo, with Danish racer turned Formula 1 pundit Jason Watt calling for the driver to be sacked by Aston Martin.
‘Give him the sack immediately,’ wrote Watt.
Watt also believes that Fernando Alonso currently has the weakest team-mate anywhere in the F1 field with Stroll.
‘[Alonso] is driving alongside the worst driver in the field, in my eyes,’ claimed Watt.
