Formula 1: Former president of Mexico roasts Lance Stroll

Felipe Calderón, a former president of Mexico, roasted Lance Stroll in support of Sergio Perez retaining his seat at Aston Martin for the 2021 Formula 1 season.

There is mounting speculation that the 2020 Formula 1 season could be the final season for Sergio Perez at Racing Point, the team set to be branded as Aston Martin starting next year, despite the fact that he signed a three-year contract extension with the team last August.

There have been rumors that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who is set to be replaced at Ferrari by McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. next year, will be hired by Aston Martin. While those rumors quieted down a bit for a time, they have been back in full swing in recent weeks.

With Aston Martin’s other driver being Lance Stroll, the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll, it is seen as highly unlikely that Vettel would replace the 21-year-old Canadian, even though Lance is the driver whose contract runs out at the end of this year.

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Stroll has been the subject of tons of nepotism-based criticism throughout his career already after his father effectively bought him a seat at Williams for the 2017 and 2018 seasons before purchasing Force India, renaming them Racing Point and hiring his son to replace Esteban Ocon ahead of the 2019 season.

As a result of the rumors that that Perez may be ousted by the 33-year-old German while Stroll retains his seat at his father’s team, Felipe Calderón, who served as the president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012 as a member of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional) took to Twitter to roast Stroll in support of the sport’s lone Mexican driver.

Translated to English, this tweet reads as follows:

“This could be the last season in Racing Point and maybe in F1 of Sergio Perez. Last chance to win a GP. Although he is a better pilot and with better results, upon Vettel’s arrival it is difficult to remove the other pilot, the owner’s son. Fans promote #KeepCheco networking.”

Indeed, the 30-year-old Perez is the better Racing Point/Aston Martin driver. He is the only driver on the grid who has won his respective teammate battle for more than three seasons in a row, and he is on a five-year streak of doing so.

Head to head against Stroll last year, Perez was the victor, and quite comfortably. He outscored his teammate 52-21, and 12 of Stroll’s 21 points came via a fluky fourth place finish in the German Grand Prix, a race he actually led due to late pit strategy going his way. That same pit strategy nearly netted Williams a top five finish.

Other than that fourth place finish, Stroll finished no higher than ninth last year. Perez recorded eight top eight finishes.

Through two races so far this season, Perez has outscored Stroll 16-6 in what has been a strong year for the pink cars. They are seen as being superior to the rest of the midfield and nearly able to battle with Red Bull for second place behind Mercedes, the six-time reigning champions. Perez has recorded two sixth place finishes while Stroll has finished in seventh.

Of course, it remains entirely possible that both Perez and Stroll will be back with Aston Martin next year, or even that Vettel will replace Stroll as opposed to Perez. Surely Stroll’s management would be able to find him another seat on the grid should that scenario play out.