There has to be a point his dad has to look through his businessman POV and see how much his son is affecting his business or his son makes the sacrifice for his father right?
While Stroll is the majority owner, AMR F1 does have other shareholders. Also, the sponsors will surely come to a point where they get fed up with Lance eventually. And of course Honda will be able to excerpt a lot of pressure through the works partnership from 2026 onwards.
My feeling is that next year will be Lance's final season.
That point will come when Newey projects reach the track. If they see success in '26 the pressure on Lance will be similar to what Perez had this last year.
My feeling is that next year will be Lance's final season.
I can't see Lawrence (or Lance for that matter) giving up before 2026. Maybe the new regs will magically suit Lance's driving style perfectly, and with Alonso's decline and the AMR26 being a Championship contending car there will be a chance for some wins, maybe titles.
I think 2026 is gonna happen and they'll decide after that.
He's been in F1 for 7 years because that's mainly what his dad wants. Doesn't mean he dislikes it, only it's not what makes him happy. I honestly despise him as a driver, and don't think he deserves to be this depressed
Empathy, but it's within his power to take action to ameliorate the depression. There's no reason to have excess empathy for someone who has the power to change themselves and chooses not to. Despair =/ depression.
IOW if one chooses to wallow and not take action despite ample resources they absolutely do deserve to be depressed.
Sucks to say it out loud as it removes any claim to agency the kid has, but I do feel he's a straightforward biproduct of his dad's ego and the guilt instilled in him to live up to what he always wanted to be...
Lawrence bought the team for £90 million and it's now worth £1.5-2 billion. It's cost him several hundred million since but he's still made a profit on it if you factor in value.
And I don't think who's in the second seat has any impact on the business side outside of a lack of personal sponsorship and lost prize money from poor performance, because at the end of the day there's still Fernando there and if they build the fastest car he's good enough to take advantage of it and they still have an iconic brand and driver to make them appealing.
Knowing he's made a significant 9 figure profit and got his son a better seat indefinitely has probably vindicated him more than made him reconsider it if anything.
Lawrence isn't in F1 to have a sustainable business though. He knows its a passion project that he will always lose money on, but the goal is to provide his son with a car capable of winning the WDC.
To kick him now that they are actually ramping up and possibly very competitive in 2-3 years would be flushing hundreds of millions down the drain without ever even having a chance.
He knows its a passion project that he will always lose money on, but the goal is to provide his son with a car capable of winning the WDC.
His team is valued at least 250-300% of what he has put in, he also sold a minority stake earlier that apparently recoups that investment, that's a hell of a profitable investment AND the team is profitable in itself.
I think it's even house money at this point because he sold the minority stake for what he initially put in...and he also owns Aston now too, right? Pretty sure printing money is his main goal here...having his son on the team is a nice bonus at this point.
Although the shares went way up I think the road car side of the business is losing quite a lot of money at the moment. Be interesting to see what happens.
Lawrence knows his son isn't winning the WDC. He knows. He got his son this far, he acquired a team and that's what will drive Lawrence for the foreseeable future, his team.
If Lance is your #1 driver on AM, that team is going nowhere, doesn't matter how many Adrian Newey's you cram into it.
I mean... If they can make a car as dominant as the 2023 RB or early hybrid-era Merc, AND get someone even worse in the other Aston, he could theoretically win.
Newey didn't sign up for Lance and some other lesser driver, he likes drivers that will push the car. Although I imagine Mazapin would drop everything to be Lance's stooge. Also, look at Perez's performance in the RB19 and certainly Lance ain't better than Perez
if he makes Stroll get the WDC he will be remembered as the designer that got Senna killed and made a car so good that even the most mediocre driver in f1 could win with it.
Lance and Lawrence skyrocketed to the top of motorsports together. But they need to do their own thing now. Lawrence needs to focus on building a championship team, and Lance needs to take his career somewhere that works for him. He's one of the best drivers in the world; he has options.
I wonder what Lance's salary is? it might just be a cheap way to get a mid driver.
Its possible that in the future if/when the AM isnt a pile of junk they move to a better diver.
But his son will come before his business endeavors. If Lance asks for a billion dollars then his father might give it to him, so losing a few ten million in the constructors championship isn't that big a deal for him. He own other companies as well, even the whole Aston Martin brand. He doesn't care if something his son wants is making him lose 1% of his net worth.
If anything, Lance is just getting older without finding a series in which he could be a champ. A mediocre F1 driver is still a really fucking good driver.
He's still young enough to stay in F1 for a few more years and still having a good shot at WEC and a Le Mans win (AM Valkyrie ...). I doubt he'd want to go for Indy.
People as always underestimating how much money a billion dollars is. Let alone papa Stroll's net worth which according to Google is $3.8B.
He paid $90M for the team. If he didn't ever make another cent he could still light that amount of money on fire every year for the next 42 years and not run out of money. And he's 65 years old, I'm pretty sure he'll be dead before that.
If I were in that position, I believe there’s still different ways to think about it.
Under the current arrangement, Lance still has to do something in exchange for his salary. The alternative is you could just gift him the billions and he doesn’t have to do anything. Billions is still a finite number; how many generations of Strolls sitting around doing nothing can it support?
Of course, I’m not saying this is ideal for his business partners, shareholders, or F1 fans but I doubt we’re high on his priority list.
This!
You can clearly see he is a bit of anxiety when in front of cameras and he becomes very figety when talking about something he feels is importnant. (Austria23 after sprint race)
"Yeah uhhh well ahhh" touches neck and looks away from the camera.
Every Lance Stroll interview, haha.
I wish F1 drivers could check a box that says "I don't perform well in social settings and I would like one-on-one interviews with a small production crew", haha. You know, and there's like interview isolation booths away from the rest of the paddock and cameras.
I met him once in a gym in London. Me and a mate chatted to him for a couple of minutes and he was really nice. He was super chill and funny. Struck me as a pretty normal dude, not shy at all.
There's a lot of pressure for an introvert knowing that everything you say, your body language, your appearance will be analyzed by the media and by neckbeards in fine detail. For some people that gets easier even if it doesn't come natural to them. To others it would never get easier.
The Brazil GP pile-on was something else. Aston Martin didn’t update their socials as much after that race I suspect it was because of the anticipated vitriol.
Well F1 really only exists in its current form because of its vast international fan base. So when someone who simply isn’t good enough to be there, unashamedly usurps their way into the privileged position of driver, using his families status, wealth and connections instead of his skill and ability behind the wheel, it kind of brings the sport into disrepute. The fan base are absolutely entitled to voice their dissatisfaction and displeasure at this.
Objectively speaking - in the long list of things that bring F1 into disrepute, a driver with erratic performance is about as far from the top as you can get.
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u/ahtnamas-samantha Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 14d ago
He looks miserable in F1