Damon Hill admits that he questioned whether Lance Stroll was committed to F1 prior to the Canadian's comeback from a pre-season cycling accident. Stroll – who made his debut in the sport back in 2017 – sustained injuries to his wrists and toe in the incident, leaving him fearing that he could miss several races in the 2023 campaign. However, the Aston Martin driver returned in time for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, resulting in his efforts being praised by pundits including Martin Brundle . Hill was similarly impressed and believes that Stroll's fightback has put to bed any questions over his desire to be in the sport.
Hill: Accident indicated Stroll's desire to compete
"I think the question has been whether Lance has been 100 percent committed to this career, in his mind," Hill told the F1 Nation podcast. "I get the sense that sometimes he's felt, 'I don't know if I want to be doing this now'. "His comeback, after the broken wrist thing, was evidence that he wasn't going to let a setback deprive him of his opportunity to get his hands on that car and race it. "So I think that was a good indicator of his desire to compete."
Stroll becoming 'valuable asset', says Hill
Hill believes that Stroll – whose father, Lawrence Stroll, owns the Aston Martin team – has discovered an increased enthusiasm for being in Formula 1. "It's the ups and downs that are difficult, isn't it?" the former F1 driver said. "It's the down bits where you're kind of going, 'Oh, God, maybe I don't have to be doing this'. It's no secret that Lance's family is very well off, and maybe he doesn't have to [be in F1]. He could get a job in the business maybe. "But he likes his outdoor sports. He's an outdoor active type, and I think he's a very good skier as well and talented, but this has to be it, to the exclusion of everything else, Formula 1. "And that's when I think we started to see a little bit of that in Lance, that this is now a thing that he wants in his life. He wants to show that he can cut it at the very highest level in a sport like this in Formula 1. "I think that love of what you're doing is very important, because it makes you enthusiastic, it makes you give extra time to it. He's getting much more experienced, so he's becoming quite a valuable asset, in terms of himself."
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