Lance Stroll

Born: 29/10/1998 Montreal, Canada 

From one of the youngest drivers to start an F1 race to being one of the longer-serving racers on the current grid, Lance Stroll is set for a lengthy career at the top level with Aston Martin Racing. 

While his on-track efforts in that time have on occasion been overshadowed by the roving business interests of his father – Aston Martin Racing Chairman, Lawrence Stroll – the Canadian has been able to rise above scrutiny in the years since his much discussed F1 debut. 

Starting out with a successful rise through the North American karting ranks, Stroll was inducted into the Ferrari Driver Academy at 12-years old. Spurring him onto pursuing his burgeoning open-wheel career in Europe, he’d peak with a dominant run to title success in the FIA European Formula Championship in 2016 with Prema Powerteam.

Having already joined Williams Racing’s testing roster in 2015 with a view to securing a race seat in the near future, Stroll’s title success convinced the British squad to promote him directly from Formula 3 for the 2017 F1 season.  

2022 - Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team 

15th - 18 points 

Stroll’s second season in British Racing Green brought hope that Aston Martin could capitalise on radical new technical regulations to rebound up the grid, but the AMR22 proved a handful during the early rounds. 

A series of upgrades over the course of the year did their bit to stimulate competitiveness, leading Stroll to a season’s best sixth place finish in Singapore. 

2021 - Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team 

13th - 34 points 

With Racing Point morphing into Aston Martin Racing upon Lawrence Stroll’s purchase of the historic British marque, Stroll was joined by four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the rebranded team.  

Keen to build on the success of the previous season, Stroll struggled to find the sweet spot of the AMR21, which was blighted by aero issues early on in the season. 

Reaching the points in nine of the 22 races, Stroll’s best finish of the season was limited to his run to seventh at Monza, consigning him to 13th in the overall standings.  

2020 - BWT Racing Point F1 Team 

11th - 75 points 

A second season with Racing Point saw Stroll receive his most competitive package yet with the controversial but quick Mercedes W10-inspired RP20.  

Stroll capitalised with points in seven of the opening eight rounds, among them a run to fourth in the Hungarian Grand Prix and a third-place finish in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza for his second career F1 podium. 

He also achieved his first pole position after prevailing in a wet qualifying session in the Turkish Grand Prix. Stroll went on to convincingly lead the race for 32 laps before dropping back late on. He concluded the season with another podium by taking third in a Sakhir Grand Prix, which was won by team-mate Sergio Perez.

2019 - SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team 

15th - 21 points 

Having been left unimpressed by Williams’ dip in competitiveness the previous season, Lawrence Stroll’s search for a new investment opportunity led to him stepping in to save the ailing Force India team from collapse midway through the 2018 season.

Rebranded ‘Racing Point’ with Stroll installed as chairman, Lance subsequently joined the Silverstone-based team for the 2019 F1 season.  

Sizing up against experienced team-mate Sergio Perez, Stroll endured a low-key campaign, cracking the points on just six occasions, with qualifying proving a particular bugbear for the Canadian as he failed to make it out of Q1 for the first ten rounds of the season.

Even so, it was Stroll that delivered Racing Point’s best result of the season with his run to fourth place in a wet-and-wild German Grand Prix. 

2018 - Williams Martini Racing 

18th - 6 points 

Staying with Williams for a second season, Stroll’s campaign was hampered by a car that was comfortably the slowest package on the 2018 F1 grid. 

Breaking into the points on just two occasions in Baku and Monza – thanks mostly to the strength of the Mercedes power unit negating the FW41’s handling deficiencies – Stroll’s highlights were limited to out-scoring his rookie team-mate, Sergey Sirotkin. 

2017 - Williams Martini Racing 

12th - 40 points 

With only three seasons of open-wheel racing under his belt, and still just 18-years old, Stroll’s F1 debut with Williams generated plenty of publicity ahead of his debut. 

Taking over from another Williams protege-turned-driver in Valtteri Bottas, Stroll struggled with the pressure of his promotion initially, committing clumsy errors during pre-season testing and the opening rounds that called into question whether he wasn’t ready for F1. 

With his difficulties magnified by a Williams package that wasn’t nearly as competitive as it had been in recent seasons, Stroll nonetheless steadied nerves by scoring his first F1 points on home soil in Canada before going on to steal the headlines next time out with a sensational run to the podium in a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

Dodging drama around him, Stroll ran as high as second on the final lap, only for Mercedes’ Bottas to out-drag him on the run to the finish line. Despite this, third place makes Stroll the second-youngest driver to stand on the rostrum at 18 years and 239 days.  

Growing in confidence as the season progressed, Stroll cracked the top ten on five more occasions and became the youngest driver to start an F1 race from the front row after taking second on the grid for the Italian Grand Prix. 

He ended the year 12th in the overall standings, just three points shy of experienced team-mate Felipe Massa.