Lance Stroll

Biography of F1 driver Lance Stroll

Son of billionaire Canadian entrepreneur Lawrence Stroll and Belgian fashion designer Claire-Anne Callens, Lance Stroll started his journey in motorsport by excelling in karting.

Accumulating numerous accolades in Canada and North America, he appeared destined to eventually grace the F1 grid. The 2026 campaign will be Stroll's 10th in the sport. Here's a comprehensive overview of Lance Stroll.

Stroll's early career

Stroll began karting at the age of 10, claiming honours in Canada and North America, including the Federation de Sport Automobile du Quebec Rookie of the Year award in 2008.

He joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2010, making his car racing debut in the 2014 Florida Winter Series, a non-championship category organised by the programme. Competing against the likes of Nicholas Latifi and Max Verstappen, Stroll finished on the podium twice and took pole at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Stroll's competitive single-seater debut came in the 2014 Italian F4 Championship for Prema. The Canadian took the title with seven wins and 13 podium finishes, despite missing the final race of the season due to injury.

After winning the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series, Stroll contested the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Prema, in which his father had taken a stake.

Racing with names such as Antonio Giovinazzi, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Alexander Albon, Stroll finished on the podium six times from 33 races. He ended the year fifth in the championship.

In November 2015, it was announced that Stroll would leave the Ferrari Driver Academy in order to serve as the test driver for Williams.

Following a fifth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona, Stroll took part in his second Formula 3 season in 2016. Driving for Prema again, he took 13 victories, including five in a row to end the season, and claimed the title by 187 points over Maximilian Gunther.

Move to F1 with Williams

Stroll made the move up to F1 for the 2017 season, driving for Williams alongside Felipe Massa and becoming the first Canadian in the sport since 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

After retiring in the opening three races, Stroll scored his first points in the seventh race of the year, on home soil in Canada, with ninth. In the following race in Azerbaijan, he became the youngest rookie and the second-youngest driver after Max Verstappen to finish on an F1 podium at the age of 18 years and 239 days by finishing third.

He set more records in the Italian Grand Prix. Starting second on the grid, he became the youngest F1 driver to start on the front row at 18 years and 310 days. He finished the race in seventh. Further points followed in Singapore, Malaysia, and Mexico, leaving him 12th in the drivers' standings with 40 points, three behind team-mate Felipe Massa.

Partnered by Sergey Sirotkin for the 2018 season, there were very few bright spots for the team and the Canadian. Williams scored just seven points over the course of the campaign, finishing last in the constructors' standings. Its best finish came via Stroll's eighth position in Azerbaijan.

Move to Racing Point

Stroll departed from Williams and joined the rebranded Racing Point team for the 2019 season following a consortium, led by his father Lawrence, that acquired the outfit in the latter part of the 2018 season.

Points were few and far between, although there was a high of fourth in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Stroll finished 15th in the standings with 21 points, whilst he was out-qualified 18-3 by team-mate Sergio Pérez.

In the Covid-hit 2020 campaign, Stroll enjoyed a run of seven consecutive points finishes from the second grand prix onwards, culminating in his second career podium at the Italian GP, matching his previous best result of third.

Three crashes in four races followed in the Tuscan, Russian, and Portuguese GPs, whilst he withdrew from the Eifel Grand Prix due to illness. Shortly afterwards, he tested positive for Covid-19, but returned for the following race in Portugal.

Stroll then took his first career pole at the Turkish Grand Prix, becoming the first Canadian F1 driver to do so since Villeneuve at the 1997 European GP. Although he led for 32 of the 58 laps, damage to his front wing resulted in severe tyre graining, and he fell to ninth by the end of the race.

Stroll added a second podium of the season with a third-place finish at the Sakhir GP, ending the year 11th in the standings with 75 points.

Racing Point becomes Aston Martin

While Sebastian Vettel was brought in to replace Pérez for the 2021 F1 season, Stroll remained with the team under its new Aston Martin name. It was clear from the early stages, however, it was not as competitive as it had been the previous year, and there were mixed fortunes for Stroll.

He scored points in nine of the 22 races, with his best result sixth in Qatar en route to 13th in the drivers' standings, one position and nine points behind Vettel, whose second in Azerbaijan was the key result in their eventual finishing order.

Continuing alongside Vettel for 2022, the duo would have hoped for better results through the reset in the technical regulations, despite the team's transitional and growth period, but that was not the case.

Although Stroll finished in the points on eight occasions, six of those were 10th, with his best finish again sixth, in Singapore. He finished 15th in the championship, 19 points and three places behind Vettel, who opted to retire from F1 at the end of the year.

Fernando Alonso partners Stroll

With a new team-mate in Fernando Alonso alongside him, it appeared initially as if Stroll would not start the season after breaking his right wrist and a toe in a cycling accident two weeks before the season-opening race in Bahrain.

Remarkably, he delivered a stunning sixth-place finish, going on to score points in seven of the following 11 races as Aston Martin enjoyed a superb start to the season. Alonso scored points in the first 14 races, including seven podiums.

Results were not as strong for either driver later in the season. Stroll even withdrew from the Singapore GP after a qualifying crash. He still secured the best standings result of his F1 career with 10th, albeit 132 points adrift of fourth-placed Alonso.

Aston Martin's performances suffered a sharp decline in 2024, to such an extent that Stroll did not score a point in the final 11 races. The nadir was a crash on the formation lap of a wet São Paulo GP. By the season's end, he had scored just 24 points.

The 2025 season proved to be just as difficult. After finishing sixth and ninth in the opening two races in Australia and China, the rest of the year was dismal as Stroll only finished in the top 10 on four other occasions in 22 races. He even pulled out after qualifying for the Spanish GP due to experiencing pain in his wrist. With 33 points, he finished a lowly 16th in the standings.

For 2026, he and Alonso will partner for a fourth consecutive season.