When Aston Martin’s team principal, Mike Krack, proclaimed the other week that the F1 team is built around Lance Stroll to justify his agonizing participation in F1, one can’t help but wonder if Aston Martin F1 has completely lost its marbles. Lance Stroll has shown time and again that he’s about as suited for F1 as a fish is for riding a bicycle, and his only claim to fame is being born into the lap of luxury as the son of Aston Martin’s owner.

Sure, Stroll Jr had a junior Formula single-seater career, so he’s got some experience handling a single-seater car. But F1 is a whole different ball game, often venturing into the realm of the unknown, and it demands the utmost dedication and focus. While some drivers can handle the intense pressures of modern F1, many more crash and burn before they even make it to the starting grid.

Stroll has occasionally shown a glimmer of speed, but his track record is mostly littered with incompetence, like that embarrassing incident at the Chinese Grand Prix where a distracted Stroll rear-ended an innocent and unaware Daniel Ricciardo… and then had the audacity to call Ricciardo an “idiot” for it.

But being born with a silver spoon firmly wedged in his mouth, thanks to his dad, the world’s poorest billionaire, Lawrence Stroll, Lance Stroll Jr resides in a bubble of privilege, which is only reinforced by Mike Krack’s nauseatingly fawning praise. It seems even Fernando Alonso has jumped on the bandwagon of sycophantic support for Stroll Jr.

The twisted logic behind all this is that both Krack and Alonso want to keep Stroll Sr happy by showering Stroll Jr with undeserved accolades for his so-called indispensable role in the team. Supposedly, Lance Stroll gives top-notch feedback, which is supposedly the secret sauce behind Aston Martin’s recent on-track success.

Yet, with Lance Stroll constantly finding new and innovative ways to crash and burn, and getting thoroughly schooled by Alonso, one can’t help but wonder how he manages to find the time to provide such insightful development feedback.

The bitter truth is that Lance Stroll is a weed in a field devoid of weeds, and F1 needs to uproot him and replace him with a driver who actually has a chance of flourishing.