‘Did he ever want to become an F1 driver?’ – Jacques Villeneuve questions Lance Stroll’s F1 commitment

Lawrence Stroll and Lance Stroll in the Formula 1 paddock.

Lance Stroll is not the first driver to make it into F1 because of sponsorship but he is the first to have his father buy him a Formula 1 team, but is he living the dream or is Lawrence?

That’s a question that was pondered by Jacques Villeneuve when the 1997 World Champion made a guest appearance for Sky F1 at the Canadian GP.

Lance Stroll is in a ‘unique situation’ as the son of a team owner

Arriving on the Formula 1 grid on the back of a reported $80 million paid to Williams, Stroll is now into his eighth season without a Formula 1 race victory.

His best results have been a hat-trick of P3 results, not helping the Canadian shrug off his ‘pay driver’ tag.

But while that’s always been something hanging over Stroll’s head, in the last two seasons doubts have been raised about whether he even wants to be in Formula 1.

The son of the team owner at Aston Martin, Stroll has given three-word answers in the obligatory post-session interviews, has appeared apathetic, and as refused to give a definite ‘yes’ when questioned about his F1 future.

It had Natalie Pinkham saying: “When you interview Lance, it’s hard to get the emotion out sometimes, he doesn’t give you very much.

“But you have to believe you can’t do this sport and go through what you go through if you don’t want to be here surely.

“So he does want to be here. Why can’t he say I’m going to be on the grid next year, I want to be here I’m driving, I love Formula 1.”

Karun Chandhok agrees that despite Stroll’s “unique situation” as the son of the team owner, a driver has to love F1 to compete.

“We do what we do because of passion,” said the former F1 driver. “You love what you’re doing and driving the racecar is the best part of the job.

“He is in a unique situation, if you look at his circumstances, he is in a unique situation and he doesn’t necessarily have to do what the other 19 drivers do.”

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However, 1997 World Champion Villeneuve wonders if it is Stroll’s passion or his father Lawrence’s that is driving the Aston Martin driver.

“There’s one question you never ask, did he ever have a choice? Did he ever want to really become a race car driver or was it his father’s dream?” he said.

“The father has always been extremely passionate about racing. I knew him in my IndyCar days and he always wanted to be racer himself. He was not allowed. And he’s living his dream.

“So did he [Lance] actually have the choice or not?”

That had Pinkham replying that Stroll “definitely says it’s what he wanted to do” to which Chandhok pondered: “We are making a lot of assumptions and ultimately we need to… What’s the point we’re trying to achieve here is Lance passionate about racing and driving a Formula One?

“I would argue that if you don’t have that passion then you wouldn’t be here. It’s a tough business, a very public business to be putting yourself out there in front of millions of people – 82 million people – every weekend judging your performance if you weren’t enjoying it or loving it for the right reasons.”

Although Aston Martin have only confirmed Fernando Alonso for next season, team boss Mike Krack has implied it’s a matter of time for Stroll as the team was created for him.

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