Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto are at the centre of a surprise Formula 1 feud, with Stroll telling Colapinto to “focus on scoring a point” after Colapinto’s post-Brazilian Grand Prix criticism of Stroll.
Just after the Brazilian GP, Colapinto, having witnessed Stroll make contact with Gabriel Bortoleto on the opening lap ahead of him, reportedly accused Stroll of “always taking people out, just not looking in the mirrors, leaving no [space]. And he puts Gabi in the wall.
“It’s what he does every time.”
Stroll wasn’t impressed to hear that criticism as he told media, when asked about Colapinto’s comments in Las Vegas.
“I heard about it, I don't know, maybe he's frustrated and angry with life,” Stroll said.
“I don't know how many points he has in the championship. How many?”
Stroll was told Colapinto has zero points. He replied, “Zero? He has zero points.
"He should probably focus on his own things and try and score some points at some point this year.”
Stroll pointed out he didn’t get a penalty in Brazil and even Bortoleto didn’t blame him for their contact, despite Bortoleto coming off far worse.
“I spoke with Gabriel after, it was racing,” Stroll added.
“Yeah, probably Franco should focus on scoring a point or something this year.”
He added: “I’m not surprised. Maybe like I said, he's frustrated with his season and where he wants to be.
“And he needs to speak about other things that’s irrelevant. So yeah, my advice to him is he tries to focus on his own thing, maybe score a point this year.”
Stroll’s ‘focus on scoring a point’ comments were put to Colapinto in the pre-event press conference.
“I think you're seeing a heat of the moment after the race,” Colapinto said.
“So the incident with Gabriel – I was just behind, and I just saw the moment. But of course, sorry if it affected him, of course. I was in the heat [of the moment] after the race, and yeah, hopefully it's all good between us.
“But we've been spending a lot of time together on track in the races. We've been very close to each other, and we had some close fights.”
I mean, Stroll is not wrong. In the end it should not be Colapinto's thing to care about, especially when Bortoleto himself says it was simply racing.
I do understand the frustration though, we all know the "not checking his mirrors enough" is one of the biggest criticisms when it comes to Stroll.