The world’s poorest billionaire, Lawrence Stroll, has come to the defense of his son, without paying anyone to do it on his behalf. Speaking to RaceFans for free, without paying any fee, Stroll senior reminded everyone and anyone that his son Stroll junior (Lance Stroll) deserves his place in Formula. This despite Lance senior bankrolling Lance junior’s entry into the Williams F1 team when he first entered the sport at the age of 18. Lance Stroll has a Formula 3 Championship to his name which includes 14 pole positions, 14 wins, and 20 podiums. But Formula One is on a different level altogether. Many F3 champions have failed to step up to the demands of F1.

However, and to be fair, Stroll junior isn’t a terrible driver and at 22 years has time to improve considerably. And he has shown good performances in the wet and occasionally shows a good amount of speed. But Lance Stroll isn’t the type of driver who will consistently drive at the top level. But who knows, one day junior might develop into a top tier driver. The best performers in F1 are on their game from the beginning. Lance junior isn’t that type of driver just yet.

Nevertheless, Lawrence Stroll is 100-percent convinced of his son’s ability:

“I think his (Lance Stroll) performance on the track 100% justified him being there (F1). And, by the way, if he wasn’t my son, that performance alone, nobody would be questioning,”

“It takes the advantage of the car away and puts it in the driver’s hands. To put it on pole in the wet in Turkey, I think spoke for itself and speaks volumes. Leading the race for 30 laps, 20 seconds ahead speaks volumes.

“The two podiums – he probably could have and should have won Monza if not for the restart where they started him on the dirty side of the track and we all know what that meant, he just got wheelspin and still came back to get a podium – and Bahrain.

“For a 22-year-old, he just turned 22, to accomplish what he accomplished last year, demonstrated his performance and his justification of being there.”

Racing Point has rebranded to Aston Martin F1 for the 2021 season. Lawrence Stroll owns both entities. Aston Martin has links to Mercedes road cars and will make use of the 2020 championship winning Mercedes F1 chassis for the coming season.