Happy birthday to the young Canadian, Lance Stroll! He turns 24 today.
Stroll, who was born Lance Strulovitch, joined F1 in 2017 after winning both the F4 and F3 titles in 2014 and 2016 respectively. He was driving for Prema in both series.
2017 saw Stroll join the F1 paddock with Williams. He was partnering Felipe Massa, who came out of retirement after Valtteri Bottas joined Mercedes following the shock retirement of the 2016 champion Nico Rosberg.
Stroll had a tough start to the 2017 season, with three DNFs in his first three races, the next three races did not yield any points. However, fortunes changed, and he scored his first points at his home race in Canada, followed by a shock podium at the chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix. he followed this up with a P10 in Austria. Malaysia saw him have a clumsy accident with his current teammate Sebastian Vettel. Vettel, who was driving for Ferrari at the time has his rear wheel hit by Stroll on the cooldown lap following the race. He ended the 2017 season in 12th position and a grand total of 40 points.
2018 was a season to forget, as Williams were uncompetitive. He partnered Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin, and only recorded two points. It was also announced during this 2018 season his father, Lawrence Stroll, was leading a consortium to take over the failing Force India team. In this announcement it was reported Stroll Jr would join the team for the 2019 season to partner Sergio Perez. 2019 was another insignificant year.
2020 saw arguably his best year so far in F1. As the season was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Stroll took his first podium for the Silverstone team at that years chaotic Italian GP, and his first podium since Azerbaijan 2017. After withdrawing from the Eifel GP due to contracting COVID-19, he put in a sensational qualifying lap in the wet at Istanbul to record his first and only F1 pole position to date. Sadly, the race did not pan out and Stroll fell to 9th position. He recorded another podium at the Sakhir Grand Prix alongside his teammate, who took his maiden win, to record the only 1-2 for Racing Point.
2021 saw the team rebrand as Aston Martin, and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel join the team to partner the outgoing Sergio Perez. Stroll continues to drive for Aston Martin and will be partnered by to time world champion in 2023 after Vettel announced his retirement.