Former Components 1 driver and Sky Germany analyst Ralf Schumacher has argued that now could be the time for Lance Stroll to depart the championship.
Stroll joined the Aston Martin F1 group when it was underneath the Racing Level branding in 2019 after his father, Lawrence Stroll, led a consortium of buyers to buy the squad.
Schumacher claimed that Stroll “should not actually be in Components 1 anymore” and that younger drivers, reminiscent of 2025 Components 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli, deserve a seat within the sequence.
The Canadian driver has been outperformed by his present team-mate Fernando Alonso for the reason that two-time champion joined the Silverstone outfit in 2023. Their first 12 months as team-mates noticed Alonso end fourth within the drivers’ standings with 206 factors, and Stroll completed tenth with 74 factors. Alonso completed ninth in 2024 with 70 factors with Stroll in thirteenth with 24 factors, and 2025 resulted in a tenth and Sixteenth-place finishes for the duo.
“Strictly talking, that is now not acceptable. Truthfully, once I see how properly the Components 2 winner [Fornaroli] has finished, he deserves to be in a automotive like {that a} thousand occasions extra,” Schumacher stated through the Sky Sports activities Germany podcast.
“However I am additionally curious to see what occurs there, as a result of, to be trustworthy, even Lawrence Stroll […] cannot flip a blind eye to this subject. In my view, he is additionally a candidate who should not actually be in Components 1 anymore. Undoubtedly.”
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Picture by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Photos through Getty Photos
The Aston Martin F1 group has seen plenty of change lately. Sebastian Vettel retired on the finish of 2022, main the Silverstone outfit to signal Alonso to drive alongside Stroll. Development of a brand new state-of-the-art 400,000 sq ft manufacturing unit started in 2021.
As well as, former Purple Bull technical director Adrian Newey joined Aston Martin in 2025 as managing technical accomplice and can assume the function of group principal in 2026.
2026 may even welcome Honda to the group as its energy unit provider after the Japanese outfit parted methods with Purple Bull Racing.
At the moment, Stroll is contracted to Aston Martin till the top of 2026.
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