"I remember Lawrence Stroll coming to me" - Former F1 team boss on when he was approached by Aston Martin boss for comments on Lance Stroll

Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan shared a snippet about being approached by Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll for his comments about Lance Stroll, Lawrence's son. Lawrence took over the team formerly known as Force India in 2018. After being initially called Racing Point in 2019 and 2020, the team got its current moniker in 2021.

Since then the team was a midfield challenger for a couple of seasons before bursting through this season. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin's lead driver took advantage of the car to secure multiple podiums this season. The team ended the season in fifth after a mid-season slump following an incorrect development direction.

Heading into the 2024 F1 season the team will be hoping to take another step forward. However, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll has been a topic of discussion for his lack of performance. On his podcast Formula For Success, Eddie Jordan talked about how he was approached by Lance's father Lawrence for some of his comments. Jordan said:

“I remember having one of the few rucks that I’ve had, I remember Lawrence Stroll coming to me to say, ‘Why did you say?’, I was working with you [David Coulthard] and Mark [Webber] on Channel 4, I think I said would Lance Stroll get a drive without his father’s help or influence and he wasn’t happy about that."

He added:

“I’ll now come back to that and I’ll say that I think he does warrant and justify his position in Formula 1, but he is never going to be a number one driver from what I can see at the moment.”

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Aston Martin's rise puts a spotlight on Lance Stroll

Talking about Lance Stroll, former F1 driver David Coulthard said that the rise of Aston Martin and its frontrunning pace was what put the focus on the Canadian driver. Adding to Eddie Jordan's point earlier in the podcast, the former Red Bull driver Coulthard said:

“We should highlight the brilliant surprise of Aston Martin, serious amounts of investment there under Lawrence Stroll’s vision. They’ve moved into a new factory, which is never easy to do during a season. Fernando, brilliant, breath of fresh air. It does put a little bit of a spotlight on Lance."

He added:

"He, I think, drove brilliantly in Bahrain, still recovering from broken bones in his feet and his wrists and then thereafter, I think he did a solid job. But you’ve got to say there were not the same level of highlight performances. Although he did finish the season I think relatively strong, there weren’t the same highlights as Fernando’s."

Lance was under a lot of pressure all season to match his teammate Fernando Alonso and his inability to do that only made things worse. It will be interesting to see what happens next in 2024 as he will have another year of experience under him.