Lance Stroll has ruled out any chance that he could be tempted away from Aston Martin in the future, if a currently higher-placed team were to come knocking. Entering his fourth consecutive season with the Silverstone-based outfit, and the second campaign since rebranding as Aston Martin, Stroll says he would not be interested in leaving the team owned by his father Lawrence. "No, I believe in this project," Stroll firmly told media, including RacingNews365.com , when asked whether an opportunity from Red Bull or Ferrari would be tempting. With Aston Martin on a long-term plan to work their way towards the front of F1, Stroll is convinced about the future prospects of the team with the hiring of new personnel, the building of a new factory, and the general expansion of the squad with the additional finances being pumped in. "Yeah, I do [believe in it]," he went on to comment. "The new factory is coming up, a lot of people are coming on board, so I think it's great right here." One of the aforementioned people that has come on board with Aston Martin is Mike Krack, who replaces the departed Otmar Szafnauer as team boss. Krack joins with a long and successful motorsport career behind him , and Stroll is excited by the prospect of working alongside him. "It's great to have Mike on board," said Stroll of the team's latest arrival. "I've actually just met him face-to-face for the first time, but his CV, his history in motorsport, it's been excellent, and he's a great addition to the team. "I'm really excited to start working alongside him. I think he can really help us reach a lot of our goals and he's a great, great member of the team that's joined."
Stroll wary of "big learning curve" in 2022
Aston Martin are aiming to have a stronger 2022 season than their underwhelming '21 campaign, and have kicked off this year by being the first team to showcase their brand new car, as well as having already hit the track with the AMR22 . But Stroll is not quite ready to set any targets for this season, highlighting that the most important element of the first months of the campaign will be refining the details of the new aerodynamic rules. "I'm not really ready to set objectives. It's a relative game," he said. "For example, in 2020 [as Racing Point], we had a car that could fight for podiums and occasionally a win. We were fighting for those positions very often, top five, top three, and, occasionally, leading races. "Then, last year, we were fighting for points-paying positions, from eighth down to 11th. "I think it's a very relative game, where your car is, where you have to focus on trying to get the most out of the package you have as a team. That's what we focus on every year. "We don't know where we stand yet on the grid, so I don't think it's sensible to set expectations of where we should try and finish before we even get out on the track. "But, as a team goal, I think we just have to be very united and focus on every little detail that we can improve on this new car, because it will be such a big learning curve in the tests and there'll be so much to understand and learn and try. "I think big advantages can be found by just optimising the most out of these new regulations, which no teams really understand very well at this moment."
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