Adrian Newey, Monaco, 2024

Is this how Lawrence Stroll makes his son a world champion?

Formula 1

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Lawrence Stroll ensured his son wanted for little as he glided through the junior categories on his ascent to Formula 1.

His debut with Williams in 2017 followed a series of private F1 tests the likes of which few drivers at the time enjoyed. But within two years of his debut the Strolls had grown frustrated with Williams’ travails.

When the Force India team ran into trouble in 2018, Stroll pounced. He beat rival bidders including the Andrettis, who are still seeking a way into F1, and fellow billionaire racing father Dmitry Mazepin (whose son Nikita later drove for Haas) who tried to sue Force India’s administrators after they declined his offer.

In short Esteban Ocon was extracted from the cockpit and Stroll was installed in the F1 team which now belonged to his father. But this was only the beginning of the Stroll F1 project.

Lawrence Stroll, Lance Stroll, Williams, Circuit de Catalunya, 2017
Lawrence Stroll brought Lance into F1 with Williams
Lawrence Stroll did not amass a fortune estimated at $3.9 billion through unwise investments, and Force India was undoubtedly a shrewd purchase. Fourth places in the 2016 and 2017 championships were clear signs of a team punching well above its weight.

He has spent the last five years transforming it into a heavyweight. That much is clear from the enviable facilities at their expanded Silverstone base, the first major new building for an F1 team in almost two decades, tailored perfectly to the needs of the budget cap era. A new wind tunnel and driver-in-the-loop simulator are due to come on stream in the near future to ensure their development team wants for nothing.

That team has a new name, of course, Stroll having taken over the Aston Martin road car brand and applied its identity to his F1 team in 2021.

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F1’s new technical regulations will arrive in 2026 including its first new power units for 12 years. Stroll’s decision to pursue a works engine deal with Honda speaks volumes about the scale of his ambition compared to that of certain rivals.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Yas Marina, 2021
Honda powered Verstappen to his championships
Renault, through its Alpine brand, is preparing to throw in the towel and abandon its F1 engine project. They plan to give up building their own F1 engines, surrendering the huge potential advantage that could bring them if they beat their rivals, and take the very units Aston Martin are discarding.

Not that their Mercedes motors currently put Aston Martin at a disadvantage, but that the potential benefits of taking a works engine are so huge. Especially when you’ve lined up a deal with the manufacturer whose engines powered Max Verstappen to the last three drivers’ titles, and most likely soon a fourth.

That’s the kind of ambition which builds a championship-winning F1 team.

Yesterday Aston Martin announced it had created a new technical collaboration between Honda, its lubricants supplier Valvoline and title sponsor Aramco to advance the development of its 2026 power unit. Aramco, of course, is also an official F1 partner, and will produce the sustainable fuel to be used by its two top feeder series next year before they are introduced to the world championship.

Facilities and equipment are nothing without people to make use of them and here too Stroll has made many astute hires: Dan Fallows, Tom McCullough, Andrew Alessi, Luca Furbatto, Bob Bell and most recently Enrico Cardile of Ferrari, due to arrive early next year.

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But the coup de grace would be the designer regarded by many as F1’s greatest of all time, an unquestionably so of the current era: Adrian Newey.

Adrian Newey, Red Bull, Silverstone, 2024
Aston Martin may have won the race to sign Newey
Yesterday, Stroll gave the strongest hint yet that he’d got his man. “I certainly hope so,” he told Bloomberg.

“Adrian and I have been talking not only for months but actually for years. Adrian is clearly the most talented and gifted individual in Formula 1 based on his track record and history. In addition to being a hell of a gentleman. So I’d be very excited for Adrian to join our team as I think every other Formula 1 team on the grid would feel exactly the same.”

Asked if Aston Martin were pulling out all the stops to hire Newey, Stroll replied: “You can definitely assume that,” he replied, emphasising the ‘definitely’. There are already reports the deal will be announced on Tuesday.

For the team currently fifth in the world championship to take on the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren would require a significant step forward. But that is exactly what the 2026 regulations offer and exactly the opportunity Stroll has prepared for.

Obviously, one of the team’s drivers in 2026 will be Lance Stroll. The other will be Fernando Alonso, who extended his contract that far earlier this year.

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Two months later Alonso indicated he doesn’t plan to race much longer then that season, when he will turn 45 years old. “I will be part of the team for many years, even when I am not driving, and Lance will lead this team in the future,” he said. “I will always support him.”

Lawrence Stroll, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 2026
The Strolls are well prepared for 2026
Throughout Lance Stroll’s junior career he was often paired with accomplished racers from higher up the ladder who he could learn from: Brandon Maisano or Felix Rosenqvist. That continued at Aston Martin with multiple champions Sebastian Vettel and now Alonso.

All this learning, preparation and investment has had one goal as far as Lance Stroll’s career is concerned: To make him a Formula 1 world champion. It would be the ultimate rebuke to those who claim his F1 career only ever happened because of his father’s patronage.

There are, of course, many other drivers who have benefited from their parents’ backing. But Stroll’s business acumen has made him uniquely well-suited to propel his son forward – potentially all the way into a championship-winning car.

“You need to put in a certain amount like any sport,” said Stroll before he arrived in F1. “If you play tennis you need to buy a racquet.

“But to pay to drive for a team, that’s wrong. It’s also the world we live in.”

It looks like Lance Stroll is about to get one hell of a tennis racquet.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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117 comments on “Is this how Lawrence Stroll makes his son a world champion?”

  1. Aston Martin deserves a lot of credit for investing in new facilities and making a genuine effort to join the top teams. Half the teams is just dragging along on FOM subsidies.

    But, their hiring seems a bit like they’re always a generation behind, and Lawrence saw their names in the media. Whitmarsh, Alonso, Honda, Newey, it lacks a bit of creativity. Contrast to McLaren, who runs a youthful lineup and has a technical team that, I suspect, most people can’t name more than two people from. We’ll see if it works out fir them, I guess. There’s more than one way to be successful.

    1. Honda has won the past 3 drivers’ and 2 constructors’ championships, and is currently leading both championships in 2024. Newey had a key role in the technical department designing cars in those championships. Alonso showed last year that if you give him a competitive car, he can be at least as good as anyone else on the grid, with the possible exception of Verstappen.

      The only hiring you mentioned who hasn’t had recent success is Whitmarsh, but tbh I always felt he was a bit of a scapegoat at McLaren and took the brunt of the blame for them falling away from being championship contenders. But there were clearly more issues going on than just the team principal, as it took several years after Whitmarsh was ousted for them even to return to a regular midfield position, and it’s only now they have become regular frontrunners again, some 10 years after Whitmarsh was dropped.

    2. Past gen? Newey isn’t making a comeback after spending years out of the game. He designed the car that’s leading the championship.

      1. Newey’s role at Red Bull is not the be all and end all of car design, much of that work is done by Pierre Waché and aero-guy Enrico Balbo and has been for some time. Newey ‘led’ the team, but that was more Waché’s job on the day to day. Newey, after his earlier wish to leave, was convinced to stay by being allowed to work as much or little as he wanted. There was also rumbling earlier in the year that Newey was displeased by some of the changes introduced with the RB20, and felt his questions and pointers went ignored, adding to his desire to move on. How true that is is anyone’s guess, but given all the other stories that have come out of the team, it seems there are more than a few journalists with good connections inside RBR.

        Newey has a real skill for getting the core concepts right, but as his time at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull have also shown, his cars don’t tend to keep that advantage for all that long. In that sense he might be well placed at Aston Martin going into 2026, but at the same time, much of what is now known about that car spec isn’t all that big of a departure from the current cars. The introduction of moveable aero to shorten the time it takes to get to high speeds (and thus trigger the limits on the MGU) are not unknown territory in F1.

        1. The core concept is the hard part. The rest is basically the big brain equivalent of monkey work. Let’s not forget this is the only engineer who has ever designed basically every part of the car aside from the engine and even there he has actually had input before. Can you think of any designer with that level of chops? I haven’t heard of any.

          Also, if you want me to, I can repost the list of best cars year-by-year since 1990 I posted a while back. Nearly 75% of those years, the best chassis on the grid has been his or had a heavy amount of his DNA it. Every single team he has gone to began winning AFTER he got there and went into desperate slumps AFTER he left.

          Basically, I can’t see how or why you try to argue against his track record / totally obvious impact.

          1. Nick T., with regards to your claim that “this is the only engineer who has ever designed basically every part of the car aside from the engine and even there he has actually had input before. Can you think of any designer with that level of chops?” – yes, there are many other engineers who have had that level of involvement over the years.

            If you want to go for slightly older figures, then you have people like Mauro Forghieri, Colin Chapman, Tony Southgate or Harvey Postlethwaite, to pick a few examples. If you want something a bit more recent, then figures like Patrick Head, Frank Dernie, John Barnard or Rory Byrne meet your criteria as well.

          2. I was asking with genuine curiosity. So, thanks for giving me a list.

        2. Yeah, red bull better off without him.

          The Newey cars don’t tend to keep the advantage he says! What a headline! The things one read these days!

        3. Slightly agree, he is not a Messiah, he can’t magically turn a dog into a rocket ship. Lets not forget, he also was a key part in designing the cars that didn’t win WCCs.

          He’s track record is also not that great at large rule changes, the last one he got it right, but what happened in 2009 or in 2014. He was a big part of RB’s success, but he did miss the DDD in 2009, the F-duct was McLaren’s, DAS was Mercedes, the self correcting suspension was Renault/Alpine. He also got a lot of thins first, like the coanda effect, but I also remember, that his cars usually need clean air to go really well, apart from the latest generations of RBs, most drivers struggled in traffic, but its no longer a problem thanks to DRS.

          So all in all, he is a really good person to have on the team, but winning WCCs/WDCs is not a one man job.

          1. This post is just wrong on so many points. I’ll post a year-by-year summary I’ve got it around here somewhere. I’ll post it when I find it.

        4. Well, James Key and Dan Fallows were both mentored by Newey. McLaren nabbed Key and he lasted a couple of years and was let go. Fallows went to Aston Martin and took Newey’s design with him and Aston were competitive but we see what is happening this year – he is failing miserably. And since he left Red Bull, they have taken a massive step backwards.

    3. Whitmarsh has now retired.

      The rest are current and have the best track record. Why would you want to be original. Original just means unknown and unproven.

      Alonso was the best driver by far on the market when they signed him and he was the second best driver by a clear margin last season. Time may be catching up with him finally, but he’ll still destroy Stroll for at least another two seasons. I’d expect the agreement with Lawrence is that if they get him a WDC capable car, he’ll win a title and then retire. Then little, lazy Lance can get his shot. It’d be a fitting end for a driver who has put up with more garbage machinery than any GOAT candidate by a margin of 4x (for any who say he made bad decisions, who would’ve predicted in 2014 Honda + McLaren would both fail miserably? Every other move he made was the best option on the table at the time. Anyway, we’re really far from all this being a reality yet. So, time will tell.

    4. I don’t know about a world champion, Lawrence would be lucky to make it on to a podium let alone a race victory.

  2. I would really love Alonso to win in a Newey designed Honda in 2026. Imagine the story! 20 years after his last championship, at age 45, after so many near misses, so many stories through the years. What a character!

    1. I would really love Alonso to win in a Newey designed Honda in 2026.

      Exactly this. There are two cars and Stroll is only in one of them.
      If the car is good enough to propel Stroll to the top of the order, it’s good enough to propel many other drivers sitting in the other car to the step above.

    2. It’d be a fairytale and, honestly, there’s no driver who’s ever deserved it more.

    3. Davethechicken
      4th September 2024, 11:45

      Can you imagine the internal politics at AM if they got a championship winning car. Would FA accept being wingman for Lance to fulfil the family dream?

      1. This wouldn’t happen and no, he wouldn’t accept that role. He’d win the first and then bow out to give Lance a shot win the next one. At this age, what that means is he’ll drive 2026 in the hopes they have a WDC car and likely retire at EOS. If it takes one more season for the car to get there and he’s still performing at standards he’s comfortable with in public, he’ll stick around, but I put the odds of seeing him past 2027 at about 5%.

        1. Davethechicken
          5th September 2024, 16:48

          Nick, I pretty sure Lance’s teammate will have a choice in the matter.

          1. Tell me how exactly they will force Alonso into being a wingman for Lance. How would this work at all? It doesn’t.

    4. Perhaps there are a couple of caveats to that story.
      1. Newey is a genius and obviously an asset to any team, but he has also known defeat. Granted, during the Ferrari domination the early 00s and Mercedes domination in the late 10s, the deck was heavily stacked against him.
      It is therefor unfair to claim he dropped the ball on development, but it a tleast shows that he is no guarantee for success.

      2. Alonso is an all-time great and perhaps even the best driver I have seen. I rate his 2006 title above Verstappen 2021. A third title would be befitting to his talents (and even then he can be considered hard-done by).
      The level he reaches in his 40s is astonishing, but it is hard to neglect the signs. Meaningful errors, letting opportunities slip, being better than but ultimately outscored by Ocon… Young Alonso would have wa

      I hope he can still do it, but time is running short. I fear he’ll need a really dominant car to do the job now.

      In short, it is not a given that a Newey car runs to a championship and it is not certain that Alonso can still deliver it.
      But it would bring me great joy if the old foxes prove me wrong.

      1. The Ocon example is not useful. He had literally 7 different mechanical retirements from high in the points that season + a DNS, a botched wheel change when on pace to finish 5th, etc. He beat Ocon in every parameter.

        This is the first season when I’ve thought his age is finally beginning to tell and he’s still been excellent when the car had an ounce of competitiveness.

        1. ps – despite all those advantages, Ocon had, what, two more points. So, yeah, Alonso smashed him. Also notable that during quali sessions when Ocon couldn’t his data to adjust his driving, Alonso qualified 2nd and nearly a full second ahead and Ocon qualified around 10th.

        2. The signs have been there since his comeback.
          Do you think 2006 Alonso would not have outscored Ocon – surely across 2 seasons — even with worse reliability?
          Would not have pinched pole and victory at Monaco? Would have gone winless in a season where his team mate won? Would have to wait 3/4 of a season to appear on a podium when basically all other drivers already had one?

          I rate peak Alonso way above that.

          1. This comment gives me a headache for so many reasons. I agree Alonso is not at his peak anymore but nor does he need to be and it is like you forgot what happened in that Hungary race where Ocon never wins without FA and how he only ended up ahead on the road due to a total fluke (Gasly and Ocon have never won a race on merit), or how much TEN mechanical DNFs while in the points costs you (he’s 40+ points clear of Ocon, a very good driver, otherwise) or how hard it is to put the 5th fastest car on the grid in P2 (Alpine) or to get pole at Monaco when your teammate hasn’t even made Q3 and your competition is in a car that won every single race last year except for was it Sainz winning one fluke. Hell, the guy went further than Max or any other driver last in season before failing to score or reach Q3 for the first time.

            I’ve already said Alonso is not at his peak. No way. But he and Lewis, when in a great car, are still the next best drivers to Max on the grid IMO. Another note on the FA Monaco think. One of the few areas I rate Lewis ahead of Alonso is in maximum quali pace in a great car. Lewis and Max both seem to have an extra quarter gear or to put it another way, they’re 10/10 in max quali pace and FA is 9.5. Luckily 9.5 is very good and his consistency is why he’s made so many teammates lose a seat or just look terrible.

          2. I am confused.

            Do you claim that Alonso is still at his peak or do you agree with me that there has been a decline during his comeback?

            My point was:
            1. Newey is a factor, but no guarantee for success
            2. Alonso is not at his peak, whilst other drivers are
            1 + 2 = 3. A WDC for the possible combo Newey+Alonso in 2026 is not the forgone conclusion some seem to think it is.

          3. 1. I agree it’s anything but a foregone conclusion

            2. I agree Alonso is past his peak, but still as good or better than any driver on the grid besides Max.

      2. Alonso doesn’t need to be at his peak to beat most if not all the current drivers on the grid.
        Has he lost some speed and make mistakes? Speed may be down a tad but as far as mistakes go it’s from having to overdrive a car that sucks.
        I heard all of the “over the hill” comments since his comeback several years ago and was starting to have doubts and then last year came. No driver could have done better than he did last year!
        He is in the best shape of his life, is doings laps in various types of cars most every single day, is the smartest driver on the grid and loves racing more than anything.
        I’d put him up against anyone one the grid in equal machinery over a season.
        Prost rightfully stated he’s still the best on the grid – he’s not going away anytime soon unless he chooses to do so.

        1. Agreed, Dave, on basically all of it. A driver like Lando could only dream of putting in a season that good. And, while, I do think he’s a lost a few points on maximum pace, it hardly matters since F1 is such an equipment dependent game. Alonso will be interesting to watch. We’ll get to see if, with the best ever drivers, the decline will be purely gradual or if, like Pirellis, there will be a cliff at any point.

    5. If Alonso did win another championship in a Newey designed Honda, he would surely have to retire (his lawn chair!).

      1. I wonder if anyone that saved that lawn chair. It’d go for a lot.

  3. The only thing left is for Lance to become a good driver. Sad that’s not something you hire!

    1. Lol.. Spot On! I’d only add great driver. He is probably just “good”

      1. He can be good if you’re speaking motorsports in general, there’s certainly series where he could win, but in f1 terms he’s average at best.

    2. The worst part about it is that he actually has talent, but he’s lazy. Lazy, arrogant and clearly dull.

      1. I fully agree – with Sargeant gone, we can safely say Stroll is the least talented driver on the current grid. I just want the Strolls to go away.

        1. Well, notice I said, I believe he has talent. It’s everything that shows character, which is missing. I like Lawrence’s passion. I don’t like him forcing his son on us though.

      2. He can be good, I gained a lot of respect for him at Turkey 2020, but he’s so inconsistent. And his peaks are not as high as other unconsistent drivers like Grosjean (who had properly bright flashes alongside his brainf- moments).

    3. Not really, they can just put him on quality tires and watch him pull away from the rest of the field. Lance’s father is a huge stake holder in Liberty’s F1. Its not out of the realm of possibility.

      1. Where do they get these special tires you often talk about?

  4. It doesn’t matter how much money Lawrence spends on the team or who he hires, Lance will never be a consistently good enough driver.

    1. It depends how good the car is, could stroll win in a 1988 mclaren without a team mate with senna and prost at the 2nd best car? Probably, but it’s not often you get such a big car advantage.

      1. Precisely. I assume that Keith poses this headline / quasi question implying will Lance become a WDC if he receives a car like the W06, M4/8, FW14, RB19.

  5. Not sure about Lance winning.it would be the equivalent of Perez in the RB..One thing though is Stroll Snr is a winner and not happy to be runner up..

  6. To help Lance to secure the 2027 championship I believe Lawrence is looking to replace Alonso with Mazapin or Latifi.
    Go Lance!

    1. It would be interesting to see how Lance Stroll would do against the current day Perez or Ricciardo in a top car?
      Both had more impressive careers than Stroll but clearly struggle to find their previous performance level.

      1. To me another interesting experiment would be giving stroll the clear best car, example a 2023 red bull, and put the strongest drivers, like verstappen, alonso, norris, leclerc, on the next best cars, in that case merc and ferrari, and see if he actually comes on top in that situation!

        1. Stroll would poo himself in a title battle against Alonso, Leclerc etc…he would bottle it under pressure

        2. Depends on the gap to that next car. It’d have to be RB19, MP4, FW14, W06 big.

      2. Probably about where they are now, between 7th and 12th. McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Verstappen would wipe the floor with them.

      3. Davethechicken
        4th September 2024, 11:47

        In fairness to Lance he was around about SP’s level as teammates. If you look beyond the points he and SP finished ahead of each other an equal number of races when they both finished.
        I think Lance will likely have improved a lot given his age and experiences with Seb and Fernando as teammates, Sergio probably on the opposite side of the equation with his age and lack of performance since

        1. Good point.

      4. It’s not fair to lump current day Ricciardo in with SP, unless you lump Yuki in with them too. They’ve been basically identical on pace with Yuki having an edge in quali and DR usually better at managing race stints.

  7. The trouble is the driver in the other seat. If Aston Martin has a genuine sniff at a drivers title, I don’t think Lance is the one who will do it. Sure he’s an ok driver but I’ve not seen anything to suggest he has the outright speed and consistency to challenge for a title. The only way I can see it happen is if the Aston Martin is unbeatably fast and they hire Yuji Ide to replace Fernando…

    1. So far lawrence stroll did anything to try and get his son a championship, I don’t think this is that unrealistic to expect: as soon as the car is dominant, stroll gets a really weak team mate, they’re not so hard to find, sargeant, latifi, mazepin, they all would be beaten by stroll.

      1. It would obviously be Alonso gets one and immediately retires. Then they sign Yuki and probably sabotage his car.

    2. Oh, and they will say something like “we think sargeant is the best guy for the job!”.

      1. You have the right to remain silent!

        -Sargeant Sargeant

  8. If Lawrence did somehow manage to make Lance a world champion, I’d probably be happy for them despite the strangeness of it. Bought or not, the achievement would be remarkable, though I’m not convinced it’ll ever happen.

    1. Bought or not, the achievement would be remarkable,

      I wouldn’t even consider it bought*, as F1 is primarily a team sport, and if they build the best car then they deserve it.
      The WCC is (should be) the real prize, and the WDC primarily ranking the interteam battles.

      * it would be ‘bought’ though if they pay Alonso (or another top driver) and contractually require him to always let Lance past.

      1. Good point, but I wouldn’t be happy for them. I might be happy for Lawrence cause he actually loves the sport, has real passion and has obviously put in a lot of time and gray hair to build the team to where it is. Lance though? He’s lazy, entitled and worst of all, undeservedly arrogant. I dare say he’d, by a factor of 10, the most unpopular WDC in history.

        1. Not really on topic. I wonder who is the most ‘unpopular F1 WDC’?. Like if RaceFans did a poll, would it be the ‘least deserving’, or how they won it? Attitude? I’d guess Nigel Mansell’s wife might say Piquet. Who else?

          1. To me it would be Jacques Villeneuve.
            But I cannot build a solid argument explaining why.

          2. I hate Piquet, but I’m sure he had a lot of fans. I also rate JV one of the worst WDCs ever, but he had tons of fans in NA and a pretty solid fan base internationally.

            I’d really like an answer myself to this question. LS would blow them out of the water.

        2. He’s lazy, entitled and worst of all, undeservedly arrogant.

          He never appeared any of that to me; certainly not ‘lazy’ or ‘arrogant’, and the glimpses of ‘entitlement’ might have been somewhat painted by the media channel sharing it, or the people in his environment (entitlement parasitism).

          1. I don’t think you’re paying close enough attention. I have noticed all of these and he’s famous for only going to karting practice if his dad flew him in a helicopter despite his dad building him his own karting track only a 15 minute walk away from their house.

            As someone who grew up in privileged circumstances (not anything close to those of his though), I am sympathetic to people disliking him solely for his privileged background. So, that’s not why I dislike him. I also realize that a lot of the reason he’s doing what he’s doing is to please his dad. So, that adds some more understanding. Still, the signs are everywhere.

          2. he’s famous for only going to karting practice if his dad flew him in a helicopter

            How else are you expecting kids to go to after school
            activities?

          3. lol

            PS – I was spoiled as a kid, but at least I grew out of it. Not so sure about little Lance.

  9. Devine intervention would not be enough to make Lance Stroll a World Champion.

  10. As long as he hires fast drivers, Lance will at best finish 2nd in the championship.

    Stroll is a pole sitter, a podium finisher, and his track record is far better than people sometimes give him credit for. But he will never be a Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso, Leclerc. When Alonso does retire, unless they sign Latifi for an all-Canadian lineup then Stroll will struggle to beat his team mate.

    1. I’m trying to think of who on the grid I’d bet on him to reliably beat aside from Zhou. While there are a handful that I don’t think would dominate him, K-Mag is the only one who immediately comes to mind that I’d say it’d be a close match up with. I think he likely has more pace than K-Mag, but that’s the only area in which I think he’d do better. As for Perez, you never know with the guy. I know in a neutral car he’d be nowhere close to as hopeless as he is now.

  11. Lance Stroll can win the WDC if he has a “Williams FW14” or a “McLaren MP4/4,” AND IFF the driver alongside him, his teammate, is contractually obligated and willing to only support Lance’s championship objective.

  12. I can’t see it, personally. By my calculations, Verstappen/Norris/Leclerc/Russell/Piastri would have around 0.8-1.0% per lap on average over Lance Stroll. So Aston Martin would have to have an advantage greater than that over the next best car, which will surely have one of those drivers in it, and that just doesn’t happen in the modern era. The 2020 Mercedes comes close but the last car with a big enough advantage would be the 1999 McLaren, and even then Mika Hakkinen only just scraped it due to his own mistakes, errors by the team and mechanical failures, and less of a pace advantage in the races. I think Stroll and Aston Martin would struggle to match the level of operational performance of a Verstappen-led Red Bull or Russell-led Mercedes, or even Norris at McLaren and Leclerc at Ferrari, even if he had the desired pace advantage. And gaps between drivers was also bigger in the 1990s so, had he raced then, Stroll would probably have been more than 1% slower than the top drivers. Anyone can win a world championship in a dominant enough car, but the level of dominance Stroll would need, I think exceeds what is realistically possible in 2026 and beyond.

    1. The 2020 Mercedes comes close but the last car with a big enough advantage would be the 1999 McLaren

      That would be the early season Brawn GP (2009).

  13. Could be a World Endurance Champion…

    1. Could NOT … at least not without Papa buying him an advantage again.

  14. Sickening.

    If Stroll manages to buy a World Championship…well I don’t know where that leaves us.

    It would totally undermine the sport and it’s history. I sincerely hope it doesn’t work.

    1. No, it just would provide some perspectives into past WDC won by some which is actually something we all already know. F1 is a sport where the car is the most important. We like to glorify individuals, but we all now better.

  15. This is a sad story, to which they are no winners, other than those picking up a massive salary.

    Lance will never be WDC. If Lawrence is genuinely under the impression that he can buy his son what he needs to achieve that, it’s a really deep seated delusion of grandeur by-proxy.

    It won’t be good for F1, for Lance, or for Lawrence.

    1. What is sad then? That Newey isn’t going to work for your favorite driver?

      1. Sad because Stroll is throwing time and money into a failed dream.

        It’s good for Adrian, of course.

        Amazing how you defaulted instantly to a negative, there. You don’t even know me. Sit down with a cup of tea and think about your negativity!

        1. Alonso would be a winner. Newey would too in terms of both his legacy and not just his bank account. Lawrence is also genuinely passionate. He’ll be his happiest if Lance won a WDC, but he’ll be very happy for his team to win too.

  16. The only way Lawrence Stroll is going to have a son as a world champion is if he adopts Fernando Alonso…

    1. It kind of seems like he has. They’re definitely working in tandem and putting more effort into making Lance the best driver possible than Lance is himself. Lance is not quite as bad as most of these jokes make him out though. He and Sergio had pretty similar pace most of the time. Lance though is a knucklehead.

      1. I agree Lance didn’t look bad against Perez, but look how Perez lines up to Verstappen. Lance doesn’t have the ability to be a world champion, it’s that simple.

        All I’m glad about is that Lawrence’s folly is allowing 1,000 plus people to get high paying jobs so they can support their families….

        1. That’s a great silver lining.

  17. Newey alone is not enough to make a at best average driver a champion.

    Mansell, Prost, Hakkinen, Vettel, and Max were all very good. Hill and Villeneuve are not quite up there, but they are still above what Stroll has been showing for nearly 10 years.

    1. I love Mika to death, but a great example of a just good (Nico Hulkenberg with less consistency) driver who won a WDC with a huge car advantage. We see what happens when actual great get a car that good (Prost Williams, Max RBR, etc.). It is not entertaining. If Lance had a 2016 type Mercedes advantage, he could likely win if he didn’t have a teammate.

      1. Yeah, but as testing was unlimited back then and Ferrari had their private test tracks, they tested the hell out of that car, so it was not as straightforward as we see today.

        Mclaren won the first 2 races with huge margins, but by season’s end were just slightly faster.

        1. I agree. However, as we saw with the W06 and RB19, it’s still possible to get a car with an utterly enormous gap.

  18. Is this how Lawrence Stroll makes his son a world champion?

    I don’t think so. But it may be how Lawrence Stroll makes Aston Martin a world championship winning team. Not quite the same.

    Stroll jr. is not a bad driver. But I struggle to see him as WDC material, even in a championship winning car.

  19. “But to pay to drive for a team, that’s wrong. It’s also the world we live in.”
    Nice, old quote. It’s the world he lives in, since most other drivers get paid to drive. It’s funny how F1 seems to only allow “friendly” media, since no one ever asks tough, unpleasant questions. Maybe they are all scared of stern Stroll Sr.’s stare? In any case, it’s unbelievable how little negative reaction there is to his son enjoying his nepotism ride for so many years now.
    Yes, it’s their team, their money, but can that be an argument considering the limited number of teams and effective ban on new competitors joining the sport? We’re talking about a limited resource here, and it serves as a someone’s toy.

  20. Is this how Lawrence Stroll makes his son a world champion?

    The problem is with the general concept of the question. Lawrence can not “make” his son a world champion. That has to come from Lance. And Lance just doesn’t have it in him to be a WDC in F1.

    1. That is implicitly in Keith’s question. Is this his plan and is it enough to make Lance a WDC? Your post implies that even if Stroll had FW14, SF2004, Merc W06, etc. level dominant car and a weak teammates, he still couldn’t win. Sounds like nonsense to me. But maybe that’s not what you meant.

  21. Newey will join Ferrari.

    1. Interesting theory since both sides have all but officially confirmed he’s not going there.

  22. I think it would be quite embarrassing for the sport if this did ever come to pass. But it’s still very unlikely. It would mean that in effect, you could buy an F1 world championship regardless of the talent of the driver or drivers involved. Not a good look. Let’s not pretend Lance is a world beater.

    It would need three things to happen. 1. AM to have clearly the best car that no other team could challenge. 2. Lance to put in consistent enough performances to score the necessary victories/points and 3. For the team’s other driver not to be any better/stronger than Lance. All very unlikely that this would all come together I think.

    1. Coventry Climax
      4th September 2024, 16:43

      Exactly. Which I why I fail to see why

      It would be the ultimate rebuke to those who claim his F1 career only ever happened because of his father’s patronage.

      Blackest day in the history of F1, I’d say, and a slap in the face of those who died for it on track, in the past.

  23. Now that Williams have ditched Sergeant, is Stroll the driving least deserving of a spot on the grid? I think yes.

    1. Probably, but a few other worthy mentions too for the likes of Checo, Zhou, and Kmag.

      1. Zhou is quietly having a hideous season and I don’t know why he’s escaping criticism.

  24. OK, I don’t get it, at all. How exactly does Stroll beat Alonso to a title in the same hypothetically title-winning car? Maybe when the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, when the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. Otherwise, don’t see it happening.
    If Alonso is kindly asked to leave after 2026, what then? Aston Martin look for a replacement who definitely won’t beat Stroll over +/- 24 races in this hypothetically title-winning car?

  25. I love how salty this article is. For Stroll to win a belt Alonso’s replacement will have to be suitably mediocre. I don’t think that Stroll is a modern Yuki Ide, but if bringing the cup back to the Stroll family home is the idea then why risk him losing to some decent journeyman.

  26. There’s only one fly in the ointment, which is the desperation to be a World Drivers’ Champion. The only time I saw desperation and dedication from Lance was when he broke some bones in his hand. He must have been really desperate to go driving with broken bones. If Lance had that same dedication and desperation at every race then he’d have a fair chance of winning races, but as far as I can tell he’s forgotten to be desperate and dedicated, so I don’t see Lawrence’s efforts as being very fruitful.

  27. Well, it’s stroll and I like to give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s an investor and a winner. He won’t stop after the singing of Newey. He’s probably looking at the bigger picture and will try to gain performance on every way possible. Including replacing his son.

  28. Mr. Stroll hires someone to make the car so much faster, but no matter what Son Stroll does.

  29. Electroball76
    5th September 2024, 8:29

    Lawrence just needs to buy the other 9 teams and his son is WDC for sure

  30. If Lance Stroll ever becomes World Champion I’ll eat my helmet

  31. Stroll isn’t good enough, Alonso too old and Newey isn’t the be all and end all.

    Nice story though bro.

    1. You’re bright.

  32. So what I am reading here is Newey to AM. Alonso 2026 WC. Lance 2027 WC.
    I love this kind of optimism, but sorry folks don’t see it happening. Not sure if Honda gets it engine to be perfect right away. Same with the RB/Ford engine. But looking forward to 2026. Andretti may own Alpine by then, who knows?

    1. He didn’t say that would. Just that it’s happened many times before and AM has everything in place for that happen. Whether it will happen is another question entirely whose only answer we’ll see in 2026. For Lance, he doesn’t even really need to worry about it happening in 2026. It’s really FA whom the clock is ticking for.

  33. It looks like Lance Stroll is about to get one hell of a tennis racquet.

    Fantastic, Keith! :)

  34. Even in his daddy’s factory bought team, built around little Lance, he can’t achieve.

    Alonso is out-qualifying Lance 12-7 in 2024, Lance has failed to make it out of Q1 3x and Q2 9x, while Alonso has made it to Q3 12x already, in the races Alonso leads 11-6, and on average finishing position is places ahead of Lance … who, with a top 10 car is languishing in 13th. And in the points race, well … Lance has less than half of Alonso’s points.

    As far as Newey goes .. why would he change his clearly stated plans to retire and enjoy time with his wife, to build a car for Lance to crash. Lance might be precious and all important to Lawrence … but I’m sure Adrian’s wife is far more important to him. And Adrian doesn’t need the money. He’s already at the point where he can’t realistically spend what he has in the time he has left, so what would be need more?

  35. To borrow Peter Warr’s famous statement about Nigel Mansell, Lance Stroll will never be a world champion as long as I have a hole in my backside.

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