'Have a feeling Stroll will leave F1 for something else in a year and a half'

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5 August 2023 at 10:24
Last update 5 August 2023 at 11:04

Six podiums for Fernando Alonso, none for Lance Stroll. The Canadian's best placings? Once a fourth place (Australia) and two sixth places. The AMR23 is better than that, with Stroll taking a disappointing ninth place in the world championship. David Croft does not rule out the 24-year-old driver leaving Formula 1 in the not too distant future.

At the start of the season, Stroll drove with two broken wrists, but remarkably, those were the very races where Stroll still showed something of his class. "I want to see the Lance Stroll back that turned up in Bahrain, because I think he’s lost his way a little bit. I think he’s lost his mojo, and whatever’s happened, Lance just doesn’t seem to be as motivated now as he was at the start of the season," commentator Croft said in Sky Sports' podcast.

Stroll soon to be out of F1?

With his father Lawrence as owner of the Aston Martin team, Stroll jr. may well be assured of a longer future with the British formation, but at the same time, backer Lawrence must also realise that becoming world champion is out of the question as long as his son is behind the wheel. Besides - says Croft - it seems as if Stroll does not like driving in the king class of motorsport that much (anymore).

"We’ve never looked at his future elsewhere, but I just have a little feeling that in about a year and a half’s time, Lance Stroll will race his last race in Formula 1 and go off and do something else," the 53-year-old Briton said. ”Because I just I think he’s losing his mojo. I don’t think Formula 1 was the sport he wanted to go into when he was younger. I mean, he was a massive tennis talent when he was younger, one of the best youngsters in Canada at the time, and I just wonder if he might go off and find something that fulfils him more and brings more excitement to him."