Lance Stroll ‘facing Mike Tyson every weekend’ in ‘poor guy’ assessment

Lance Stroll isn’t being given an easy time of it in F1, according to long-time Ferrari veteran Gino Rosato.

The quality of Lance Stroll’s teammates at Aston Martin shows that the Canadian driver isn’t being given an easy ride in F1, believes former Ferrari stalwart Gino Rosato.

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Stroll is in his third season alongside two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso this year, and is tied on points with his illustrious teammate.

But the Canadian driver often faces intense scrutiny and criticism from pundits and media, due to his being the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll.

Stroll Senior, a billionaire, put together a consortium to purchase the beleaguered Force India team in 2018, transforming the outfit into Racing Point before rebranding as iconic marque Aston Martin in 2021.

His son has driven for the team since 2019 and, with his form occasionally being quite sporadic against high-profile teammates such as Sebastian Vettel (also a World Champion signing by Aston Martin), Sergio Perez, and Alonso, it’s led to the perception of him having a job security than other drivers on the grid perhaps don’t enjoy to the same extent.

Stroll is highly regarded within the race team and has stepped up a gear this year by proving himself as more than a match for Alonso, and topped off the first half of his season with seventh place in Hungary as the AMR25 proved competitive at the tight and twisty Hungaroring.

During his career, he has scored three podiums and battled to recover quickly from wrist injuries in 2023 and earlier this year, only missing one race as a consequence of a flare-up of pain during this summer.

Appearing on the Pitstop podcast, long-time former Ferrari manager Gino Rosato, whose career with the Scuderia began in the 1990s, the Canadian scoffed at the idea that Stroll has had a different F1 journey to many of his contemporaries.

“This is another one that is a bit of a p**s off, in a way. Going back to the same b******t people always talk,” Rosato bluntly said as he was asked about the relationship between the father and son duo at Aston Martin.

“‘Lance Stroll arrived there because he had money’. Name me one Formula 1 driver who has never arrived there because he had money, or through a manager, or through a sponsor, or through a team.

“Can we just drop the wallet thing? If we agree on that one, then… that everybody needs money to get there?

“Now, Canada is maybe not the best place to find sponsors and money, and okay, the father has the money, ‘Let’s put him there’.”

Expressing some of the most commonly-expressed misconceptions of Stroll, Rosato said, “‘Oh, my God, but he had all the best material when he was go-karting’ and all that.

“What kind of manager — and I’ve met them all — doesn’t want the best material, for your talent or for your son?

“He did all the ranks. He fought where he had to go to. ‘Oh, but his father wants to help him’.”

Stroll’s first teammate in F1 was the highly-regarded Felipe Massa, before later signings as his teammate within his father’s team included the four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel. When the German opted to leave F1 after 2022, he was replaced by the formidable two-time F1 World Champion Alonso.

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In these signings, Rosato said, Stroll Senior is proving that there is no easy ride for his son in F1.

“Really? You put your son face-to-face with Felipe Massa, [Sebastian] Vettel, and [Fernando] Alonso, and you wanna help this guy?” he said.

“Imagine this poor guy every weekend, going to a racetrack with all this b******t that’s being said.

“Why are people saying he’s trying to help him?

“Name me other drivers who had a good time with Vettel, Alonso, and Massa.

“I mean, these guys are huge front-runners.

“You go face-to-face with Alonso every weekend. Or Vettel, you learn from them.

“But I mean, mentally, this poor guy. I mean, imagine fighting Mike Tyson every weekend!

“[He hasn’t made it easy for his son], on the contrary!”

Speaking in May, legendary car designer Adrian Newey, who joined Aston Martin this year ahead of the revolutionary 2026 rule changes, said the Canadian driver deserves more credit than he gets.

Newey has worked with World Champion drivers like Vettel, Max Verstappen, Mika Hakkinen, and Kimi Raikkonen over the years, and said, “Lance, I think, has an unfairly bad rap.

“When you compare him against team-mates he’s been up against – Checo [Sergio Perez], Nico Hulkenberg, Sebastian [Vettel] and now Fernando – then he’s been right there.

“Any driver who gets to Formula 1 is clearly very good, but I think Lance is much better than people give him credit for.”

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