Lance Stroll
Lance Strulovitch, commonly known as Lance Stroll, is a Canadian racing driver who competes in Formula One for Aston Martin.
Born and raised in Montreal, Stroll is the son of billionaire businessman Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Aston Martin F1 Team, and his Belgian ex-wife. Stroll began competitive kart racing aged 10, winning several regional and national titles. A member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2010, Stroll graduated to junior formulae in 2014, winning his first title at the Italian F4 Championship that year with Prema. He then won the Toyota Racing Series in 2015 with M2, and dominated the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in with Prema.
Following his record-breaking successes in Formula Three, Stroll signed for Williams in to partner Felipe Massa, making his Formula One debut at the, aged 18. He scored his maiden podium finish in Azerbaijan that year, becoming the second-youngest driver to score a podium. Stroll finished a season-best eighth at the same Grand Prix in, driving the FW41. After two seasons at Williams, Stroll signed for Racing Point—having recently been acquired by his father—in to partner Sergio Pérez, finishing fourth at the rain-affected. In, Stroll achieved his maiden pole position at the, with podiums at the Italian and Sakhir Grands Prix. Stroll remained at the re-branded Aston Martin in, partnered by Sebastian Vettel for two seasons. Stroll has been teammates with Fernando Alonso since, finishing a career-best tenth in the World Drivers' Championship that year.
As of the, Stroll has achieved pole position and podiums in Formula One. Stroll is contracted to remain at Aston Martin until at least the end of the 2026 season. Outside of Formula One, Stroll competed in two editions of the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2016 and 2018 with CGR and Jackie Chan DC, respectively.
Early and personal life
Lance Strulovitch was born on 29 October 1998 in Montreal. Stroll is the son of Canadian billionaire businessman Lawrence Stroll—part-owner and executive chairman of Aston Martin, as well as owner of its Formula One team—and Belgian fashion designer Claire-Anne Stroll, and has an older sister named Chloe. His parents are divorced and his father has since remarried to Raquel Diniz. He is of Russian Jewish descent from his father's side. Stroll races under the Canadian flag and holds both Canadian and Belgian citizenship. He is multilingual, speaking English, French, Dutch, and Italian.Junior racing career
Like many racing drivers, Stroll began his motorsport career in karting at the age of ten. He recorded numerous race and championship wins in his native Canada and North America and in 2008, his first year of karting, he won the Federation de Sport Automobile du Quebec rookie of the year award and driver of the year in 2009. He was mentored by six-time World Champion. In 2010, Stroll became a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy.Formula 4
Stroll's car racing debut came in the 2014 Florida Winter Series, a non-championship series organized by the Ferrari Driver Academy. He raced against future Formula One competitors Nicholas Latifi and Max Verstappen, and took two podium finishes as well as pole position at Homestead–Miami Speedway.Stroll made his competitive car racing debut in the 2014 Italian F4 Championship, driving for Prema Powerteam. Despite missing the final round due to injury, Stroll emerged as series champion, taking seven race wins, thirteen podium finishes, and five pole positions.
Formula Three
2015
At the beginning of 2015, Stroll won the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing series, recording ten podiums – including four wins – from sixteen race starts. In the same year, he also contested the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Prema Powerteam, in which his father by this time had taken a stake. He competed against future Formula One competitors Antonio Giovinazzi, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Alexander Albon, winning one race at the Hockenheimring and achieving six total podium finishes in the 33-race series. He ended the season fifth in the championship. 2015 also marked Stroll's first and only appearance at the non-championship Formula Three Macau Grand Prix, in which he finished in eighth place.On 11 November 2015, it was announced that Stroll would leave the Ferrari Driver Academy to serve as a test driver for Williams.
2016
Stroll began 2016 by finishing 5th at the 2016 24 Hours of Daytona, driving for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing in a Ford EcoBoost Prototype. He remained with Prema Powerteam for a third consecutive year to compete in his second season of the Formula 3 European Championship. Prior to the season, his father Lawrence hired Ferrari chief track engineer Luca Baldisserri to be Stroll's race engineer. He won the first race at Circuit Paul Ricard before taking a record thirteen more race victories over the season, including five consecutive victories in the final five races. He claimed the title with four races to go and ended the season a record 187 points clear of nearest competitor Maximilian Günther.Throughout the season, Stroll and his team were accused of manufacturing his title via team orders to his teammates. This was highlighted by George Russell at Paul Ricard, who claimed that "it's not a fair fight" in the wake of Stroll inheriting the lead from a slowing Nick Cassidy.
Formula One career
Williams (2017–2018)
2017
Stroll drove for the Williams team for the 2017 Formula One season, partnering Felipe Massa. He became the first Canadian Formula One driver since the World Drivers' Champion Jacques Villeneuve. Reportedly, Stroll's father Lawrence Stroll paid $80 million to Williams prior to his Formula One debut.Stroll crashed in practice for his debut race, the, and received a grid penalty as this necessitated an unscheduled gearbox change. He retired from the race with a brake failure. Two more retirements followed after collisions with Sergio Pérez at the and Carlos Sainz Jr. at the. Stroll's first race finish came at the, where he finished in eleventh despite spinning on the first lap. He retired with a brake failure at the, but was still classified fifteenth. Stroll scored his first Formula One points at his home Grand Prix in Montreal, finishing in ninth place.
At the, Stroll had run in second place in the closing laps, but was passed by Valtteri Bottas just metres from the finish line. He finished third to become the youngest rookie and the second-youngest driver after Max Verstappen to finish on the podium in Formula One, at the age of 18 years and 239 days. becoming the second-youngest driver to score a podium finish and the youngest to do so during their rookie season.
Stroll registered the fourth fastest time during a wet qualifying session for the. Due to Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen taking grid penalties, Stroll was promoted to second place on the starting grid, making him the youngest Formula One driver to start on the front row at the age of 18 years and 310 days. Stroll finished seventh in the race. He recorded two eighth-place finishes at the Singapore and Malaysian Grands Prix. At the latter, Stroll and Sebastian Vettel collided on the cool-down lap after the end of the race. Both drivers blamed the other for the incident, however no action was taken by the stewards.
At the, Stroll worked his way up to sixth place in the race from eleventh on the grid. Stroll ended the season twelfth in the standings, one place below teammate Massa who had both outqualified and outraced Stroll 17–2 and 9–4 respectively. Furthermore, Stroll gained more positions on the opening lap than any other driver that year.
2018
For the 2018 season, Stroll remained with Williams, partnered by Sergey Sirotkin after Massa retired from Formula One. The Williams FW41 was the slowest car of the field and the team finished last in the constructors' championship that season. Stroll scored the team's first points of the year at the by finishing eighth. Stroll's home race, the, ended on the first lap after a heavy collision with Brendon Hartley. He then retired from the following with a tire puncture. His second and final retirement of the year came at the with a brake failure. Stroll made his only appearance in the third qualifying session at the, qualifying tenth. He went on to finish ninth in the race with teammate Sirotkin in tenth, marking Williams' only double points-finish that season.Stroll finished eighteenth in the Drivers' Championship, scoring six of the team's seven points. Sirotkin out-qualified Stroll at twelve of the twenty-one races.
Racing Point (2019–2020)
2019
Stroll switched to driving for the newly renamed Racing Point team for the season after the team was bought by a consortium of investors led by his father Lawrence. He replaced Esteban Ocon at the team and raced alongside Sergio Pérez. Stroll scored his first points for his new team at the season-opening, finishing ninth. At the, Stroll criticized team strategy after finishing outside of the point-scoring positions for the second consecutive race. At the he was involved in a collision with Lando Norris that ended both drivers' races. He finished ninth at the having started seventeenth.In qualifying at the, Stroll progressed past the first qualifying session, ending a streak of fourteen Grands Prix in which he had been eliminated in Q1. He switched to slick tires late in the race as the track was drying, elevating him to second place. He missed out on a podium after being overtaken by Daniil Kvyat and Sebastian Vettel. Stroll's next points finish came at the, where he started sixteenth and finished tenth. He scored his final points of the season after finishing ninth at the. Stroll retired from the final two races of the season, suffering a suspension failure at the and brake issues at the.
Stroll ended his first season at Racing Point fifteenth in the Drivers' Championship with 21 points, below teammate Pérez's tally of 52 points. He was out-qualified by Pérez at eighteen of the season's twenty-one races.