19-year-old Lance Stroll hopes to make waves in Formula 1 as Canada's next big thing, having become the first driver from his country to grace the sport since Jacques Villenueve in 1997.
The Geneva-based Canadian entered motorsport in the conventional route of karting at the age of 10. He won a number of races and championships in Canada, leading to him being awarded with the Federation de Sport Automobile du Quebec rookie of the year award and driver of the year in 2009.
Stroll ventured into car racing in 2015, sealing the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series with 10 podium finishes and four race victories from 16 starts. In the same year he also contested the European F3 series with Italian outfit Prema, recording one outright race win and ended the year contesting the Macau Grand Prix, finishing eighth.
As part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, Stroll became the second-youngest driver to be signed to an F1 team, before he left the Scuderia to serve as a test driver at Williams towards the end of 2015.
2016 would prove something of a breakthrough year for the teenager, and after becoming the youngest highest-placed overall finisher (5th) at the history of the Role 24 Hours of Daytona, Stroll dominated with 11 wins en route to the European F3 title with a winning points margin of over 100 points.
On November 3 2016, it was announced that Stroll would drive for Williams in 2017. He retired from the opening three races and finished outside of the points in the next three, until, at his home race in Canada, Stroll sealed his first points finish in F1 with ninth.
At the next race in Azerbaijan, Stroll became the youngest rookie driver to climb onto a step of the F1 podium, at the age of 18 years and 239 days as he finished third behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who agonisingly pipped him to second place on the drag to the line.
Further points finishes followed in Austria, Italy - where he impressed in a wet qualifying session to register the fourth fastest time - Singapore, Malaysia and Mexico, to secure 12th place in the drivers’ standings with a total of 40 points from his rookie campaign.
With veteran Felipe Massa retiring from the sport for the second time, Stroll was expected to head Williams’ charge alongside new recruit Sergey Sirotkin through 2018, only for Williams to suffer a sharp downturn in form that saw it fall to the very back of the field. Stroll managed to score six of the team's seven points, but failed to finish a race any higher than eighth, coming at Baku.
A move up the grid nevertheless beckoned for 2019 following Stroll Sr.'s takeover of Force India, renamed Racing Point, with Lance stepping out in the team's colours for the first time at the end-of-year test in Abu Dhabi.
Stroll was able to better display his talents with Racing Point through the 2019 season, coming close to a second F1 podium finish at the German Grand Prix, which he led briefly before ultimately finishing fourth. He ended the year 15th in the championship with 21 points on the board.
Despite missing the Eifel GP with an illness that later transpired to be coronavirus, Stroll turned in the best campaign of his F1 career to date, finishing 11th in the championship having scored 75 points. While he was comfortably outperformed by teammate Sergio Perez, Stroll showed more flashes of his talent, claiming a brilliant maiden pole in Turkey and two podium finishes in Italy and Bahrain.
Stroll undoubtedly improved in 2020, but his consistently inconsistent performances ultimately let him down. He will need to step up his game when four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel arrives for the new Aston Martin era.
