"You can’t be treating your team like that" - Lance Stroll's antics at Qatar GP qualifying leaves F1 pundit unimpressed

F1 pundit Naomi Schiff is appalled by how Lance Stroll reacted after getting knocked out of Q1 in the 2023 F1 Qatar GP on Friday. After the Canadian ended up in P17, he got out of his car and seemed to have pushed his personal trainer away in anger when he was trying to tell him something. He was uninterested and extremely frustrated during the post-qualifying interview in the media pen as well.

Speaking to Sky F1, Naomi Schiff stated that this behavior from Lance Stroll was completely inappropriate, and he cannot behave this way even though he was having one of the worst days.

She said:

“Multiple poor performances in a row. On one hand, you look at this in slow motion, I mean, he really puts a lot of energy into that shove. And that’s really totally inappropriate. You cannot be behaving that way, no matter how disappointing your day has been.”

She explained how it is the team around a driver that helps them drive a good F1 car. Hence, a driver should always respect his team. Rather than coming out of the car and acting the way Lance Stroll did, he could have apologized for the performance.

She continued:

“Those are the people who work to get you on track to make it happen for you. You can’t be treating your team like that. It’s one thing to have a bad day, come out of the car and apologize, but to come out and act that way, it’s just not good enough.”

Lastly, Naomi Schiff sympathizes with the Aston Martin driver, as she understands how emotions can run high, especially after qualifying sessions. However, it does not justify his actions.

She said:

“And he’s clearly distressed. I mean, we’ve got to empathize, because he’s a human being and he’s got his emotions and you can see him picking at his hair when he’s giving his one-word answers [in his post-session interview]. He’s obviously going through something, but that doesn’t make it okay, you’ve got to act better.”

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Lance Stroll frustration surfaces during post-qualifying interaction

Getting knocked out of Q1 during the 2023 F1 Qatar GP was probably the last straw to make Lance Stroll lose his cool. Not only did he push one of his team members away in the garage, he also gave a rather uninterested and frustrated interview after his qualifying session ended. When asked about his overall feeling after the session, Stroll simply said:

"Yeah, s***".

Since it was a live broadcast, the word was, of course, uncensored for everyone to hear. Furthermore, when asked about which area he is struggling with, he said:

"I don't know."

Finally, when asked about Saturday's Sprint sessions and how he would approach them, he concluded and left the media pen with:

"Keep driving."

This clearly shows how Lance Stroll's frustration at not being able to perform well has gradually surfaced.