Stroll addresses where his ‘head’s at’ over 2025 plans amid driver market developments

Lance Stroll has given an update on his F1 future amid further moves in the driver market, with the Canadian voicing his intention to be a part of Aston Martin’s continued growth going forwards.

Stroll first joined the squad back in 2019 – during its former guise as Racing Point – when the team was purchased by a consortium of investors led by his father, Lawrence Stroll. The outfit was then rebranded as Aston Martin in 2021 following Stroll Snr’s purchase of a significant stake in the British company.

READ MORE: Click here for the latest driver market news

Within the squad, Stroll first raced alongside Sergio Perez before being joined by Sebastian Vettel between 2021 and 2022. Fernando Alonso became his team mate in 2023 and recently committed his future to Aston Martin, signing a contract that will take him through to 2026.

In terms of his own plans going forwards, Stroll reiterated his commitment to remaining on the grid in 2025 as the team continues to build, with recent developments including their new factory at Silverstone.

Asked ahead of the recent Canadian Grand Prix if he intends to be racing in Formula 1 next year with Aston Martin, the 25-year-old responded: “Yeah, that's where my head's at, for sure. Seems to be a pretty popular question that I've been getting asked recently.

“It's super exciting, everything that's happening at Silverstone and the project with the team and how we've grown over the last few years. And we continue to grow, so it's definitely in my mind to continue being a part of that.”

READ MORE: Alonso explains why ‘sensitive’ Stroll is key to Aston Martin’s success

While Stroll is keen to continue his partnership with the team, he acknowledged that there is still further work for them to do in order to maintain a consistent level of progress throughout a season.

Aston Martin have endured mixed fortunes so far in 2024, off the back of a 2023 campaign in which they started off strongly before tapering off as the year progressed, with many of their rivals seemingly getting ahead in the development race.

On whether he could pinpoint the cause of this struggle to keep up their progression, Stroll reflected: “It's definitely been the tendency… It was the tendency last year.

"We were always fighting [in the] top five, and then again this year, I think we were quick over one lap at the beginning of the year, suffered a little bit more with [degradation], but we were still kind of top five, top seven range.

READ MORE: ‘It’s probably my last contract’ – Alonso reflects on new Aston Martin deal as he predicts ‘things are in place’ to become a ‘powerful team’

“Now we're kind of scrapping for a point or two on a good weekend, which is not what we want as a team. I think we definitely do understand our issues. I think we understand some of the decisions and directions that we've chosen to follow through with.

“We know some of the mistakes that we've made, and now it's just a matter of sorting ourselves out and putting some new upgrades on the car going forward that address some of these issues that we know we have. But it's not an overnight fix.

“Realistic expectations, it's going to be over the course of, I hope not too many races, but definitely a few races. And yeah, but there's still a lot of racing left. There's still, I think, 13 or 14 races left, if I'm not mistaken. So [it’s a] long season, but we have some work to do.”