Is this how Stroll wins the championship? · RaceFans

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 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.

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.

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.”

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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