Formula One moved a little closer to a brave new world in 2017 with the confirmation from Williams that Canada’s Lance Stroll will become the sport’s youngest driver on the grid next season.Stroll, who turned 18 last week and who does not have a road licence, will replace Felipe Massa, who announced two months ago that he would retire at the end of the season.
Bernie Ecclestone, 87 next year, remains in place for now, as the sport’s CEO, but with new regulations, faster cars, new owners in Liberty Media and a younger look to the grid, F1 is already freshening itself up for next season.
In the summer it was announced that Stoffel Vandoorne would replace Jenson Button at McLaren, while Max Verstappen, who was only 17 when he made his debut last year, is now one of the stars of the paddock.
The Stroll announcement will also help invigorate a Williams team that has stagnated this year. After overachieving in 2014 and 2015 – the team finished third in the constructors’ championship on each occasion – they are running fifth this season. The team was in need of some fresh paint – Valtteri Bottas has been there since 2010, originally as a test driver, while Massa is bringing down the curtain on a 15-year career in F1, the last three at Williams.
Stroll, the European Formula Three champion, will become the sport’s first Canadian driver since Jacques Villeneuve, who won the world title in 1997. He joined Williams’s young driver programme a year ago and is a former Ferrari junior driver. Unsurprisingly, he has a rich father – Lawrence Stroll is a billionaire businessman.
Claire Williams, deputy team principal, said: “Lance joined the Williams young driver programme at the end of 2015 and has impressed our engineers with his maturity, talent and enthusiasm.
“We are pleased to be able to offer him the opportunity to step up and show what he can do in Formula One, after proving a dominant force in all the categories he has raced in so far.
“He is still young, and we looking forward to seeing him develop as a driver. Williams has a great record of introducing young drivers to Formula One, who have achieved great results, and we hope this will be the start of a long successful career for Lance as well.”
Stroll, who has totally dominated this year’s Formula Three championship, winning the series by more than 100 points, said: “I can’t thank Williams enough for showing faith in my ability. Racing in F1 was something I dreamt about as a young kid. When I began karting seriously, F1 was then the ultimate goal and especially when I started racing cars in 2014.
“It is going to be really amazing. Being in Melbourne and being in Montreal will be an exceptional feeling. I’m happy to be on the grid. To be honest I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet. I have been focused on F3 in 2016.”
Meanwhile, it has been announced that the team principal and founder, Sir Frank Williams, 74, has been discharged from hospital after recovering from pneumonia.
Williams, who has led his team to seven driver’s titles and nine constructors’ championships, contracted pneumonia shortly after the Italian Grand Prix in September.
Clare Williams, his daughter, said: “He has been in hospital ever since the start of September. It was a slow recovery, but I am really pleased to say he is pretty much back to the old Frank we know and love.”