Forget Notre-Dame Island or Crescent Street. The real glam of Formula 1, on this Wednesday afternoon, took place on an industrial boulevard in Pierrefonds and the parking lot of a Tim Hortons.
All of Montreal’s media had braved the traffic and the scorching sun to come and meet Lance Stroll. At the wheel of a racing car that clearly hadn’t come out of the factory, the Aston Martin driver circled the Saint-Jean Boulevard franchise several times, sometimes risking more or less worrying skids, all in order to promote the fast food chain’s new variety of pizzas.
The invitation was salivating: “Stroll will be available to speak to the media about his visits to Tim when he was growing up in Montreal and how he is feeling as race weekend approaches. » There will, ultimately, have been a lot of talk about donut holes, and very little about car racing.
A question-and-answer session led by a public relations specialist first allowed us to learn that the Montrealer loves Timbits, to the point of never wanting to share them, but also that he wouldn’t see himself going on a road trip with any of his championship opponents. All in a semi-enthusiasm shared as much by the interviewer as by the interviewee. Three long minutes punctuated by two bursts of polite laughter.
More seriously, during the press scrum that followed, Stroll spoke candidly about his team’s disappointing season so far. After nine races, he and teammate Fernando Alonso find themselves ninth and eleventh respectively in the drivers’ standings, putting Aston Martin in fifth place among the constructors. At this time last year, the Greens were two levels higher.
Neither rider has yet come close to the podium. Alonso achieved a fifth-place finish in Saudi Arabia; Stroll, a sixth in Australia.
“It’s a difficult year,” agreed the Quebecer. We definitely need to find more speed in the car. We will continue to push. »
The one who generally has “good races” on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit – he has scored points there four times in five appearances – hopes above all to be “competitive” from Friday to Sunday.
Right there, the break is huge with 2023. “Last year, we were here to be in the top 5 or even to get on the podium,” Stroll continued. At the end of the week, just scoring points would be good for us. […] This is where we are. We have to be honest. »
“We understand a little where the problems are in the car,” he said again. Guidelines adopted during the winter had to be adjusted. With 15 more events to go, he is not losing hope of “putting some speed in the car,” he reiterated.
We would have liked to hear him expand on this theme, but the organizers of the meeting removed Stroll from the press scrum as if he had been in a burning car. Already the journalists had managed to extract two additional questions, they were certainly not going to be given more. Five minutes, watch in hand, and it was over.
It’s all the more unfortunate since Stroll himself seemed quite willing to chat. Obviously, he seemed to have more to say about his sport than about the flagship products of Canada’s favorite channel. Who would’ve believed that ?
Thus concluded the flashy appearance of the man who we are emphasizing in broad strokes that he will run “at home” this weekend. Everyone was left a little unsatisfied. Which certainly didn’t lack irony in Tim’s parking lot.