One of F1’s worst kept secrets is due to be confirmed this morning at 11am when Williams F1 will confirm Stroll to replace Massa for 2017.
Lance Stroll, son of the Canadian Billionaire Lawrence Stroll is expected to become team mate to Bottas for the coming 2017 season.
The announcement has been delayed due to his age. Williams main sponsor being Martini has had an impact on the date of the announcement for legal reasons, having only just turned 18 on the 29th of October.
The current Williams and last years Ferrari development driver could, at first be easily dismissed as a rich Daddy’s pay driver but the reality is much further from the truth than that.
This year the teenager has annihilated the competition in F3 by winning nearly half the races and finishing the season 187 points ahead of second place (so far) driving for Prema Powerteam.
That said, having a rich benefactor (his father) has helped him get up to speed in F1 faster than would be normal. Using a 2 year old Williams car, he’s embarked on a rigorous practice regime, testing out the car on F1 calendar circuits. An option not viable for most youngsters cutting their teeth in the lower formulae due to the huge cost implications of hiring the team to run the car along with the use of the circuits and the transportation.
Stroll will be the first driver since Max Verstappen to enter F1 straight from F3.
The announcement is set for an hours time.
So far I’ve been hearing good and bad stories about this lad.
Well, at least he’s putting his (dad’s) money where his mouth is, and I’m not sad to see Massa go. Let’s see where this will get Williams next year.
More headaches for Seb and Kimi … bring it on! 😀
The kid is very talented I followed him since the FWS where he competed against Verstappen en Fuoco. He did win a race there. He also did great in the Toyota Racing Series and Italian F4. But then again in these championships the competition was quit good but not extremly strong!
In his first year in F3 he was to eager to show his talent and wanted to be seen as the next Verstappen or Ocon, leading to big drama and crashes. But because the relativ strond and experienced F3 field he wasn’t a steady front runner. In the last part of the season he got his head together a little more and results started to come. In his second year F3 competition was weaker then in the year before and he had the best car of the grid like he allways has!
Because he won his races and championships and once in front he seems unstopable. But we must not forget that Daddy allways bought the best possible seats available in a championship, wich makes everything al little less dificult to bring in some good results.
So hopefully he has matured enough not to make last years misstakes once more. To eager to prove his talent in a midfield car. The step from F3 to next years cars will be different to the swap Verstappen did to the current cars. They will be more difficult to drive I geuss. And to be honost, Stroll isn’t a Verstappen type of talent, I think more like Kvyat, Sainz or Bottas.
wow! borrowed from http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/11/03/teenager-lance-stroll-race-williams-2017/#comment-3330329
“From the AMUS article:
Stroll sr tried to buy the Sauber F1 team. Didn’t work out. He owns for example the Mont Tremblant track. Also has one of the biggest collection of Ferrari cars in the world
Dad bought the entire Prema team (already the best team on the grid), the whole car development was intensified (wind-tunnel), the Merc-engines got special mappings. Plus: sources say there was a non-attack/overtaking pact to help the no. 1 driver, his son Lance
$35 Million, is the price for the Williams seat. That’s only part of the investment.
The Williams FW36 from 2014 is the test car. Powered by the first hybrid PU from Mercedes. Williams supplies a test-team of 20 people, Mercedes supplies 5 technicians. In Brixworth, two 2014 facilities were built for the private test program. Pirelli supplies so-called academy tires in the H/M/S compounds, they were specifically designed for the test with older cars.
Testing at: Silverstone, Budapest, Red Bull-ring, Monza, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi, Austin, Sochi, Shanghai. Pat Symonds: the last driver to come into F1 with so many testing miles was Jacques Villeneuve.
A new high-tech simulator was financed. This year, only Stroll was allowed to use it. The software was written for F3. Bottas and Massa did not use this new simulator, they had to use the old one. Currently, the simulator is being adapted for next year, for the Fw40.
Total program so far: between $70 and $80 million.
So, how can we look beyond the millions? ;)”
Williams FW40: The stroller.