Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft has slammed a Formula 1 driver for making ‘rookie mistakes’ in the Chinese GP and wonders if he even wants to be on the grid.
Shanghai welcomed the pinnacle of motorsport back to the Jiading District for the first time since 2019 last weekend. But the 2024 Chinese GP yielded the same winner as 23 of the 27 Grand Prix previous as Max Verstappen of Red Bull won after a VSC and two full safety cars.
Verstappen even won the F1 Sprint and took pole position for the Chinese GP to extend his championship lead to 25 points over teammate, Sergio Perez. Formula 1 also returns to the venue where Perez’s championship dreams started to fade in 2023 next with the Miami GP.
David Croft criticises Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll after the 2024 Chinese GP
But one of the main topics to leave the Chinese GP for Croft was not only Verstappen sealing his 58th win in Formula 1. Instead, the Sky Sports commentator took issue with Lance Stroll as the Aston Martin driver hit Daniel Ricciardo of Visa Cash App RB at a safety car restart.
The 25-year-old ploughed into the rear of Ricciardo’s RB at the Turn 14 hairpin and lifted the 34-year-old’s car into the air. It even damaged the Australian’s rear diffuser enough for RB to retire Ricciardo from the race. Stroll also immediately hit the pit lane to take on a new nose.
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Stroll received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Ricciardo in the Chinese GP. He was simply too slow to react to the field bunching up in front of the Aston Martin ace after teammate Fernando Alonso made George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Ricciardo all brake.
David Croft feels Lance Stroll sometimes ‘doesn’t look like he wants to be there’
It was not Stroll’s first error this term, either, after cheaply crashing out of the Saudi Arabian GP. The Montreal native clipped the inside wall at Turn 22 to break his AMR24’s suspension. He also crashed out on only the seventh of the 50 laps in Jeddah while Alonso finished in P5.
Yet Croft does not think Stroll is under any pressure for his seat at Aston Martin as his father, Lawrence Stroll, owns the team. But what Croft does question while criticising the Canadian for his ‘rookie’ mistakes is whether or not Stroll still wants to be an F1 driver beyond 2024.
“Why is Lance under pressure?” Croft said on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast. “Other than the pressure of driving for a Formula 1 team, which is pressure itself. But if he wants to stay around, he stays around. Surely?
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“The team has been built around him and there’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But if he wants to stay in Formula 1, he stays in Formula 1. That’s why his dad has invested so heavily into the facilities there and into that team.
“He wants his son to be a Grand Prix winner and maybe have a chance of winning a world championship. Does he want to stay? I honestly don’t know the answer to that. Sometimes he doesn’t look like he wants to be there and sometimes he does.
“Sometimes he puts in a terrific performance and other times, he makes the sort of rookie error that you don’t expect from a guy in his eighth season in Formula 1. So, I honestly don’t know what the situation is. I hope Lance is around to stay.”
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