“He should try not being mediocre”: Lance Stroll’s team radio message after crashing in Saudi Arabia Grand Prix infuriates F1 fans

Lance Stroll's 2024 F1 Saudi Arabian GP came to an early end as he crashed on the seventh lap going straight into the wall.

Starting the race in P10, Stroll continued to run in ninth place until the seventh lap. On this particular lap, he tapped the wall from his left front on turn 22, breaking the Aston Martin's suspension. Because of this, he was unable to turn the car for the next corner and went into the wall on turn 23.

While the crash did appear to be a tough one because of the general high speeds at Jeddah, he reported to the team that he was okay. A safety car was triggered and Lance Stroll retired from the race.

However, it was his conversation with his race engineer that caught the attention of fans. After crashing, Stroll was asked if he could bring the car back into the garage, to which he replied in negative.

Stroll: "Hit the wall"

Engineer: "OK, can you bring it back Lance?"

Stroll: "No, I'm in the ******** wall!"

It can be suspected that his race engineer thought of it to be a normal tap with the wall and not an entire crash. Regardless, social media users were not quite pleased with Stroll's comment on the situation.

One X (formerly Twitter) user wrote:

"Stroll expects people to be able to read his mind. He should try not being mediocre."

Many fans criticized Stroll for not being competitive enough and driving poorly.

"costing aston yet again, if the team has any ambition they’ll get rid of him"

Aston Martin is owned by Lance's father Lawrence Stroll. Owing to this and his pace relative to his teammate, there have been multiple criticisms stating that the only reason he got the seat is because of his father.

Some also sarcastically called him the future F1 world champion:

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Comoaring Lance Stroll's performance with his Aston Martin teammates

Racing Point was rebranded to Aston Martin in the 2021 season. Since then, Lance Stroll has been the fixed driver and has driven alongside two teammates; Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.

In Sebastian Vettel's two seasons with the team, Aston Martin was not very competitive. Still, there was some competition between the two drivers. In 2021, Vettel finished the season in 12th place with 43 points while Stroll was in 13th place with 34 points.

The following season, Vettel scored a total of 37 points and took another 12th-place finish, but Stroll fell to 15th place with just 18 points. This season also marked the former's final F1 season before retirement.

After Fernando Alonso's entry in 2023, the team came into the limelight. The Spaniard scored a whopping 206 points and finished the season in fourth place. Lance Stroll, however, scored only 74 points and finished in 10th place.

It seems apparent from the statistics that Lance Stroll has been outperformed by his teammates at Aston Martin. After the second round of the 2024 season as well, Alonso is seemingly ahead of him in the championship.