by Mike Satterfield
OPINION
Stroll's father is the Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll who made his fortune with fashion brands like Pierre Cardin, Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger. He has poured millions of dollars into Lance's racing career and it seemed to pay off. After buying the Prema F3 team and hiring top engineers from Ferrari and Williams he took home the European F3 Championship. He also placed 5th in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in a Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entered Ford EcoBoost Prototype. In 2015 he won New Zealand's Toyota Racing Series Championship, recording 10 podiums and 4 wins.
In the 2016 European F3 series he took home an impressive 14 wins with a total of 20 podium finishes, giving him the championship by over 100 points. Since August Stroll has been training in a 2014 Williams F1 car with a full support team testing at Silverstone, Hungary, Monza, Austria, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi, Austin and Sochi. Lance has a solid track record of winning in F4/F3, and with the amount of seat time he has put in behind the wheel in testing he might be the best prepared rookie in Formula 1 history.
"I come from money, I am not going to deny that. But I believe I won my shot in F1 because I won every championship I have competed in in single-seaters." Stroll told the Star.
For those doubting his talent based on his age don't forget that Max Verstappen started out at 18 and just a year later has had 6 Podiums for Red Bull Racing in 2016. As for Stroll being a pay driver, F1 world champions Niki Lauda, Michael Schumacher, and Fernando Alonso all started out as pay drivers themselves so the young man is in pretty good company.
So let's see him race...
If you want to learn more about Lance check out his official site (it's honestly a little over produced) but it has a ton of information on his racing career and history. lancestroll.com
Photo via LanceStroll.com
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