Lance Stroll spoke after Aston Martin launched the AMR22, his ride for the 2022 Formula 1 season, and believes that consistency is the sport’s strongest point.
The Canadian was speaking to reporters at his team’s launch event on Thursday, in the context of discussing what happened at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, after the controversial manner in which Race Director Michael Masi administered the safety car period towards the end of the race after Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed his car with a handful of laps remaining.
“Consistency in our sport is not our strongest point,” he said. “The rules are the rules and we can’t be changing or modifying rules for entertainment.
“The rules are the rules, when there’s a safety car, lapped cars get to overtake the safety car and then we go racing. There’s nothing that says half the cars can overtake and half the cars have to stay behind and then we’ll go racing.
“My opinion is that it’s ridiculous that we didn’t go back racing the way that we should have gone back.
“You can’t change the rules halfway through, at the end of a race, and tell half the cars they can overtake,” Stroll insisted.
Formula 1 needs to be more consistent
Stroll feels that consistency is paramount for F1, and while having an exciting race is important, fair racing should the be the priority that the sport should chase.
“It’s just never been done before and it’s important that we keep rules consistent,” he said.
“I understand it’s great to go racing and everyone wants to see the last lap of the race and the two drivers fighting for the world championship go head-to-head with one lap to go but we can’t be making up rules at the end of a race, that has to be set in stone,” he explained.
“If there was maybe an error where cars didn’t pass soon enough when the safety car came out or backmarkers weren’t allowed to pass the safety car early enough and the consequence is we won’t get the whole lap of racing well, then that’s how it is.
“That is the rule, the rules have to be consistent,” Stroll pointed out. “In Formula 1 we’ve seen some inconsistency in penalties and decision making and I think this was maybe a little bit too much.
“It’s important that those things are set in stone,” the 23-year-old concluded.
The upcoming F1 season will be Stroll’s sixth in top flight, with three podiums and one pole position at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix being his best results in his career.
He will hoping that the newly launched Aston Martin AMR22, will be a contender to fight at the front of the grid, after the team suffered an underwhelming season in 2021.