Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll will compete with Aston Martin for the 2023 F1 season.

Lance Stroll F1 career (2017 - Present)

As expected, Stroll was promoted to the Williams Martini Racing driver line-up for the 2017 season, originally in place of Felipe Massa, only for the Brazilian to return alongside him in the wake of Valtteri Bottas defecting to Mercedes.

With Stroll’s route to F1 drawing parallels with Max Verstappen, who debuted in F1 a year earlier with Toro Rosso after a single season of F3 racing, there was significant attention on the first Canadian since Jacques Villeneuve to compete in the top flight.

However, it was a fraught start in F1 for Stroll, characterised by a number of spins and crashes during pre-season testing and the opening rounds, with his first finish coming in Round 4 at Sochi.

Nonetheless, in a car now mired firmly in the midfield even in the ultra experienced hands of team-mate Massa, Stroll’s form began to improve and he fittingly secured his first points with a run to ninth on home soil in the Canadian Grand Prix.

This was followed at the next race by a shock run to the podium in the following Azerbaijan Grand Prix. With the Williams car's weaknesses coming from low speed venues, the high-speed straights of the Baku City Circuit played to the FW40’s strengths, which coupled with a series of incidents towards the end of the race saw him running as high as second place.

Though he was out-dragged to the finish line by Valtteri Bottas, third position made him one of the youngest drivers in history to ever stand on the rostrum.

Thereafter results came more easily for Stroll and high-speed circuits duly played host to his most notable performances, namely a front row start at Monza after a wet qualifying session and a run to sixth position in Mexico. Coupled to points at Silverstone, Singapore and Sepang, he ended the year 12th in the standings, just three points behind Massa.

Promoted to team leader in 2018 after Sergey Sirotkin replaced the retiring Massa in the sister car, Stroll suffered for what was generally a bad year for a Williams team struggling in the wake of bad financial results and a desperately uncompetitive car.

This was despite it being designed by Paddy Lowe, regarded as one of the primary reasons for Mercedes’ current domination of the sport.

However, Williams found itself rooted towards the back of the field for the majority of the year with Stroll only cracking the top ten on two occasions - an eighth in Baku and a ninth place finish at Monza.

More damningly was Stroll being beaten by the less experienced Sirotkin on the qualifying head-to-head (12 to 8), even if the Canadian did end the year with more points to his name.

Despite his troubles at Williams, Stroll’s immediate future in the sport had been decided on the strength of his father Lawrence Stroll stepping in to save the competitive but cash-strapped Force India team mid-way through 2018 after the outfit was threatened with liquidation.

With Stroll Snr leading a consortium that would take it over with immediate effect from the Hunagrian Grand Prix, Force India was renamed Racing Point and Stroll (Jnr) duly signed to take over from Esteban Ocon from 2019. Later in the year it was confirmed the team would morph into Aston Martin from 2021, the result of Stroll assuming a large stake in the iconic British marque.

Paired with the experienced Sergio Perez, Stroll struggled to get the better of the Mexican either in qualifying or race trim and troubled the points on only five occasions all year, even if this did include a fourth place finish in a rain-affected German Grand Prix he at one stage looked on course to win before dropping back in the closing stages.

However, Stroll’s persistent issues with getting the softer tyres into a good working temperature would see him flounder in qualifying once again, ending the year crushed by Perez starting ahead of him in 18 of the 21 races. Indeed, it would take until the German GP (Round 11) for him to break out of Q1, which in turn ended a dismal streak of 14 races without reaching Q2. Perez ended the year with 52 points to Stroll’s 21.

Competing in an unchanged driver line-up, Stroll made a significant step-forward during the first half of the 2020 season, scoring in eight of the opening nine races, even if critics will point to his controversial Racing Point RP20 machinery, which looked suspiciously similar to the title-winning W10 campaigned by technical partners Mercedes the previous year. 

After a protest from Renault, the FIA agreed - despite having originally signed it off - and docked Racing Point 15 points in the constructors’ standings (which ultimately cost it third overall), though the drivers points remained unaffected.

During this run Stroll returned to the podium with a run to third position in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, a feat he repeated in a breakthrough Sakhir Grand Prix when he finished third, behind race-winning team-mate Perez. 

He also scored his (and Racing Point’s) first pole position in a weather-affected Turkish Grand Prix, but these latter efforts came amid a run of disappointing form - not helped by skipping a race with COVID-19 - that dropped him to 11th overall having run as high as fourth earlier in the year. 

Nine points finishes in 22 races for Stroll in 2021 is a respectable return given Aston Martin's struggles throughout the season.

While he didn't have the highs of new teammate Sebastian Vettel, Stroll was arguably more consistent, particularly in race trim. 

It was a similar story in 2022, with a handful of points finishes for Stroll.

Still, more room for improvement, especially in qualifying for the Canadian who continues to be a steady performer in F1.