Aston Martin’s decision to create a factory team to compete in the top category of the World Endurance Championship creates a very natural and logical opportunity to address the specific personnel problem within the Formula 1 team.
It is not yet known who will drive the Valkyrie AMR Pro hypercar during the WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans, but one of the seats in the cockpit would suit Lance Stroll. The Race writes about this and rightly states that you can hardly ask the son of Lawrence Stroll, co-owner of Aston Martin, of the Formula 1 team, but the reality is that this will have to happen sooner or later. .
Aston Martin has very serious ambitions and even this year the team managed to build a very effective car, allowing Fernando Alonso to reach the podium seven times. But if the two-time world champion occupies 4th place in the individual rankings, Stroll is only 10th. Moreover, he was already ahead of McLaren newcomer Oscar Piastri in points – it turns out that Lance should be considered the worst driver of the top five teams.
At the same time, Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon do not have many fewer points than the Canadian and it is possible that he will finish the championship outside the top ten.
Stroll’s performance is difficult to compare with Alonso’s, both in qualifying and in the race, even taking into account that he did not start the season in the best physical shape, having not yet recovered from a injury. Moreover, he was often unlucky during the championship, but be that as it may, it is because of his results that Aston Martin can even lose 4th place in the constructors’ championship, as McLaren is already seriously claiming that.
Naturally, the Silverstone team is interested in replacing Stroll with a more stable and faster driver, and a new program in the WEC could be a very reasonable solution.
Lance can do this job very well, as he has racing talent, there is no doubt about that. Otherwise, he would not have achieved success in the youth categories, he would not have reached the podium in Formula 1 (he has already achieved this three times), and he is distinguished by his ability to drive well in difficult conditions. Proof of this is the pole position in Turkey in 2020, where qualifying took place on wet asphalt.
But the question is: how motivated is he, how great is his hunger for success, which his famous teammate is famous for? Being good at racing is not enough to become one of the best in Formula 1, and perhaps it is fair to say that Lance does not have the makings of a champion. It is unlikely that he will suddenly improve in the near future, because this season is already the seventh in Stroll’s career, he has already driven 137 Grand Prix and formally, according to this indicator, he is in 10th place in the rankings of the most experienced drivers in the championship.
Aston Martin is making rapid progress, the team’s investors, especially Stroll Sr., are investing huge amounts of money into its development – suffice it to say that the team has moved to a new state-of-the-art base this year and to a new wind tunnel in 2024 will work there. All this is done so that in a year or two the team can really fight for victories, but it seems that Lance risks becoming a weak link that delays the implementation of such plans.
Aston Martin has no choice but to understand this and the team needs to find a replacement for Stroll as the spot he occupies already looks very attractive given the potential of the AMR23 car. A new project in the WEC, where the price for success is also very high, especially in a race like the Le Mans Marathon, and this is also a world championship, could be interesting for Lance if he plans to continue his career into motorsport. Such a step will allow everyone, and first of all him, to get out of the current situation with dignity and save face.
Of course, this is all theoretical reasoning for now, and what Lance himself and his father think about this is unknown. In any case, Aston Martin’s WEC debut is scheduled for 2025, and a lot can change in that time. What if Stroll Jr. comes to his senses and can overtake his partner – such a possibility cannot be completely ruled out either.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
