Lance Stroll

**Lance Stroll** (born 29 October 1998) is a Belgian-Canadian racing driver who competed under the Canadian flag in Formula 1.5. He drove for Aston Martin in 2021 and 2022, having previously driven for Williams and Racing Point. He was Italian F4 champion in 2014, Toyota Racing Series champion in 2015, and 2016 FIA European Formula 3 champion. He was part of the Ferrari Driver Academy from 2010 to 2015.

## Personal Life

Stroll is the son of billionaire Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll (part-owner of the Aston Martin Formula One team) and Belgian fashion designer Claire-Anne Callens. Stroll has an older sister named Chloe. Stroll races under the Canadian flag and holds both Canadian and Belgian citizenship. Stroll is of Russian-Jewish descent from his father's side and Belgian-English descent from his mother's side.

## F1.5 Career

### **Williams (2017-2018)**

#### **2017 Season**

Lance Stroll became a full time driver for Williams in 2017. He had a very rocky start to the season, with three consecutive retirements before scoring his first points finish with 6th in the Russian Grand Prix. After poor performances in the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix. Stroll rebounded with a 4th place finish in his home Grand Prix in Canada. In the chaotic race in Azerbaijan, filled with crashes, safety cars and retirements, Stroll was able to navigate his way through and after the retirement of his teammate Felipe Massa, was able to score an unexpected first career victory in Formula 1.5. He continued his good form with a 5th place in Austria, two points finishes in the next two races and a 6th place in Belgium. Stroll took his first career pole position in Italy, and while he did lose out to Esteban Ocon in the race, he finished second to record his 2nd career podium. He continued with a 5th place in Singapore and took another podium in Malaysia, finishing 3rd. After retiring in Japan and a 6th place in the United States, he took a fourth and final podium finish with 2nd in Mexico, before ending his season with mediocre performances in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

#### **2018 Season**

Stroll was retained by Williams for next year, but the car was much worse than in the previous year, forcing Stroll to settle for fighting for small amounts of points. With the equipment he was given, Stroll did quite well, scoring points four times in the five opening races, with great results of 5th and 6th in the Azerbaijan and Spanish Grand Prix. Things turned for the worse after that though, with Lance scoring points only once in the next seven races (7th place at Silverstone), finishing eleventh three times, twelfth once and retiring twice. Stroll rebounded after the summer break with a 9th place in Belgium followed by his best result of the season in Italy, where he dragged his Williams to the chequered flag in fourth place. Stroll ended the season finishing somewhere in the back of the points consistently.

In the middle of the season Lance's father Lawrence bought the collapsing Force India team rebranding them as Racing Point. This enabled Stroll to jump from the sinking ship of Williams to a team at the front of the grid once again. This move made him unpopular with fans, who judged him as a pay driver and pointed out that he only got the Racing Point seat because his father bought the team.

### **Racing Point (2019-2020)**

#### **2019 Season**

Stroll started the season well, but off the podium in the opening races. He collided with Norris in Spain and failed to score points in Monaco, but in the Canadian Grand Prix he scored his first podium since 2017, placing 3rd. After three more points finishes, he took his second podium of the year, this time a second place, in the rainy and chaotic German Grand Prix, benefitting from the retirements of both Renaults, Norris and Perez. After an 11th place in Hungary, Stroll consistently scored points in the next seven races, with the best result out of them being a 4th place in Japan. He retired from the two last races with mechanichal issues.

#### **2020 Season**

Stroll retired from the season opening Austrian GP, before finishing 3rd in the Styrian GP. He took his second career win along with pole and fastest lap at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He finished 6th in the British GP and rebounded with a 2nd place in the 70th Anniversary GP. In the Spanish Grand Prix Stroll crossed the finished line 2nd but ascended to first place after Sergio Perez's 5 second penalty was added. The win, bundled with previous leader Leclerc's retirement, put Lance Stroll in the lead of the drivers' championship for the first time in his career. At Belgium, Stroll seemed to struggle for pace, finishing 5th, however due to the lack of pace from the Ferrari cars he still lead the drivers championship. At Italy, Lance Stroll finished third behind the McLaren of Carlos Sainz and AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly. Stroll was catapulted up the order after a red flag came out, which allowed him to change his tyres without loosing time, when everyone else had stopped and fallen behind. Stroll didn't score for the next five races, three of which he didn't finish. Stroll was leading strongly in Tuscany until a puncutre saw him spin off into the gravel and retire, at Russia he was forced to retire during the 1st lap after Charles Leclerc forced him into the wall. Stroll missed the Eifel GP in Germany, due to COVID-19. Stroll then returned to racing in Portugal where he retired due to damage from an incident with Lando Norris. The next round after that saw Stroll finish out of the points in 11th. At the next race, in Turkey, Lance took pole postion ahead of Sergio Perez and lead most of the race in wet conditions. Lance then fell back through the field after making a pitstop and getting damage of which the team couldn't see on the data. During the Bahrain GP Stroll retired due to an incident with Daniil Kvyat, sent him rolling over on to the top of his car. At Sakhir, a week later, Stroll finished third behind Esteban Ocon and teammate Sergio Perez. The final race saw Stroll finish in 6th after struggling for pace. Stroll finished the season in 6th place on 148 points.

### **Aston Martin (2021-2022)**

#### **2021 Season**

Aston Martin looked to struggle early on in the season, with Stroll finishing sixth in Bahrain, ahead of new teammate Sebastian Vettel who finished 11th. The same result was repeated in Imola after a wet-dry thriller, a retirment that race for Vettel meant Stroll was the teams only scorer after the first two rounds. Stroll was running an upgraded package in Portugal, which should have pushed him up the grid, but the reverse happened where he finished 10th, scoring just one point. Spain looked up, after a late battle with Alonso, he came 7th, following that he finished P5 in Monaco. With the car looking pacey again, the team went to Baku. Stroll was leading the race on the alternate strategy, however a tyre failure saw him retire from the race. Pirelli said *"The process established that there was no production or quality defects on any of the tyres; nor was there any sign of fatigue or delamination".* Teammate Vettel went on to win the race. Stroll scored points with sixth place at the French Grand Prix, having started fithteenth after being unable to set a representative lap time in qualifying.

Stroll caused a collision on the first lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix that eliminated himself and Charles Leclerc from the race and caused Daniel Ricciardo significant damage. As a result, Stroll was issued a five-place grid penalty for the next race, the Belgian Grand Prix. Stroll was set to start the Mexico City Grand Prix from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. His qualifying position was ultimately unaffected by the penalty as he qualified twentieth (last) after crashing. His best result of the season came at the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix with his only podium of the season, finishing third.

Stroll finished the season in 8th in the drivers championship, outscoring teammate Vettel by 5.5 points.

#### 2022 Season

Aston Martin retained Stroll and Vettel for the 2022 season. He failed to set a qualifying time at the Australian Grand Prix due to a crash with Nicholas Latifi for which Stroll was penalised. During the race, Stroll made two pit stops during an early safety car period in order to satisfy the regulation mandating that drivers use two different tire compounds, and then pitted a third and final time on lap 23 during a safety car period caused by his teammate Sebastian Vettel. He later received a penalty for weaving on the straight when defending against Valtteri Bottas.

Stroll took his first podium of the season when he finished third in a rain effected race in Singapore. In the US Grand Prix, Stroll took Aston Martin's maiden pole position, he was leading the race until he crashed with Alonso. He would take another podium to finish third at Abu Dhabi.

Stroll finished the season in 8th place in the championship being outscored by Vettel by 32 points.