Former Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve has taken aim at Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll - telling the billionaire his team requires “more than just money”.
After three races in 2022, Aston Martin are the only team yet to register a point in the championship with the Australian Grand Prix a disaster from start to finish.
Lance Stroll, the son of fashion magnate Lawrence, crashed into Nicholas Latifi in qualifying, earning a penalty which sent him to the back of the grid. A smart strategy call was then wrecked by his penalty for illegal weaving during the race, while Sebastian Vettel crashed out.
“Running a team takes more than just money, Lawrence Stroll is now finding out at Aston Martin,” wrote Villenueve for Formule1.nl.
“It is not a clothing label or a watch brand, because it is much more complicated. Especially if you're running a team for your son, finding solutions become all the more complicated.
“Looking at this weekend you saw that Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll kept getting into trouble. Stroll's incident with Latifi in qualifying was just embarrassing. He even blamed the track for the crash, which was perhaps the strangest explanation for a crash ever.”
Villeneuve questioned his fellow Canadian Stroll over how he will turn the Astons’ fortunes around ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.
“The question is, what is big boss Lawrence Stroll doing?” he continued. “If he treats his drivers the way he does business, those are not nice conversations.
“The atmosphere in the factory must also be to die for, you will not currently be welcomed there with a smile. In the long run it is not an easy situation to solve, they have built a car comparable to a Williams or a Haas. Only they managed to do it with a smaller budget.”
