In 2009 Mike Wilson – winner of 6 karting titles – during a conversation with his friend Andre Martin (importer of the Tony Kart brand in the USA) learned that a wealthy Canadian was looking for a tutor for his soneager to try his hand at motorsport.
Wilson spoke on the phone with Lawrence Sheldon Strulovitch, known as Stroll, fashion magnate and owner of the Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors brands, as well as the Mont Tremblant circuit in Quebec.
The arguments were evidently convincing, so much so that Wilson was pushed to join him in Canada. From the province of Bergamo – where he lived with his wife and children – he flew to Montreal, to train the young Lance.
It seemed to be the usual whim of the billionaire on duty. It was something more. “His father has clear ideas. He wants to bring Lance to F1 and if a top team doesn’t hire him, he has already decided to buy or create a team from scratch just for him“Wilson explained, to general indifference.
Then it arrived Luca Baldisserriengineer and right-hand man of Michael Schumacher, who at the end of 2015 decided to leave the Ferrari Driver Academy to follow Stroll Jr’s career., who at just 11 years old had joined the Maranello youth project.
To push his son’s ambitions in single-seater racing in the preparatory categories, for six years Lawrence Stroll financed the Prema team through a company controlled by him. Lance thus had the best material and a top-level structure at his service and between Italian Formula 4 and European Formula 3 he took home the 2014 and 2016 titles.
Then the Move to F1 in Williamsa team that had already allowed him to use a simulator set on his F3 in the Grove factory – exclusively for training. To prepare for the big leap at just 18 years old, Lawrence Stroll placed 20 Williams employees and 5 Mercedes engineers at his son’s disposal and had him drive the 2014 car at Silverstone, Budapest, Monza, Zeltweg, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi, Austin and Sochi. A monstrous training program – 6-7 thousand kilometers – which has not been seen in the top division for at least twenty years, since the debut of Jacques Villeneuve.
It was said that just to bring his son into Formula 1, Lawrence Stroll had spent something like $80 million. It was no secret that the Canadian tycoon was then looking to buy a team. Williams was talked about for a long time, but the opportunity arose in August 2018, when he took over the derelict Force India For $117 million. And in 2019 Lance moved to Racing Point, the team’s new name.
Stroll Sr. did not stop there: others $235 million paid to become executive chairman of Aston Martin at the beginning of 2020, with the glorious brand thus entering F1 in 2021. With Lance at the helm and two world champions at his side, first Sebastian Vettel and then Fernando Alonso.
We come to current events. “I want to win with my vision, my business acumen and my wallet,” Stroll senior stated without too much elegance to Drive to Survive Of Netflix. There is only one goal: to win the F1 world championship. With Lance at the wheel and at any cost.
The investment is gigantic. The sights are set on 2026. Aston Martin signs agreement with Honda for the multi-year supply of power units, brings to the team Aramco – oil giant – to develop fuel, pours 250 million dollars into Silverstone Headquartersmodernizing it and equipping it with a new simulator and a new wind tunnel. With its infinite possibilities (asset estimated by Forbes (3.9 billion dollars in 2024) Stroll then manages to convince Adrian Newey ex Red Bull, Enrico Cardile ex Ferrari, Andy Cowell ex Mercedes, creating a sensational technical dream team to leave no stone unturned on the road to success.
It is said that in his 8 years in Formula 1 Lance Stroll was no phenomenon, but he wasn’t a wreck either. or a total unpresentableand that his scorecard reads 1 pole position and 3 podiums in his career, It is more evident than ever that his dream of becoming world champion is at the same time the nightmare of Formula 1.
It is true that in the past Mateschitz has used all his economic power to make and promote the energy drink brand Red Bull, but Stroll seems to be his evolution cubed. He has bought and is buying everything purchasable (tutors, teams, companies, engineers) just to make his son win. The romance in F1 has long since ended, but here we are beyond the paying drivers, beyond the wealth of an owner, it is a new dimension. It is something new, almost brazen. It is unstoppable and makes fun of any budget cap. And it is all perfectly legal and permitted by the laws of the market.
But what could be worse for the image of F1?
These are the stories that Liberty Media intends to tell in its “entertainment platform” (cit.)?
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