Lance Stroll has opened up about how he deals with the “noise” that has come throughout his Formula 1 career.
Stroll has had quite a meteoric rise into the paddock. The Canadian won the 2016 F3 campaign with PREMA and was promoted directly into the pinnacle of single-seater, open-wheel racing with Williams the following year.
What is well documented is the 26-year-old’s father, Lawrence Stroll, was very instrumental in his financial backing of the Grove-based team to make that jump possible.
In the years to come, Stroll has shown sparks of brilliance with three podiums to his name and a sensational maiden pole position lap at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix.
That said, Stroll Sr.’s financial involvement in his son’s F1 career has also come into the public eye more prominently. This fact, coupled with Stroll’s struggles to cope with Aston Martin’s ground effect cars, has meant the 26-year-old has constantly been on the receiving end of criticism from the fans online and the media alike.
Stroll candidly reflected on the pressures of being an F1 driver and detailed how he copes with all the “noise”.
“I like to see it as just noise,” he said on Aston Martin’s Unearth Your Greatness series on YouTube.
“If I buy into it, it bothers me, for sure, but that’s where I am fortunate. I have good people around me that I love, that I trust, and I put my attention and value their opinions.
“I try and live in my world, not the world in that sense. There’s always going to be criticism. People are very short-minded. You have a couple of good races, you’re great. You have a couple of bad ones; you suck. That’s never going to change.
“That’s why being surrounded by important people and valuing the opinion of people that you care about, that you value, that you really know their opinion, is what matters. Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.”
What Stroll’s F1 ‘losses’ have taught him
With the 2026 regulations reset ready to kick in, Aston Martin has seemingly built a strong foundation to jump up the pecking order.
Stroll Sr. has heavily invested in the team’s Silverstone factory and onboarded the likes of Honda and Adrian Newey to drive the team’s performance forward.
While the iconic British marque is preparing itself to become a title contender, Stroll is confident that the lessons he has learned from his struggles in the interregnum will allow him to take advantage of the package the team is striving to provide the Canadian.
“We can talk about the podium and the poles, but let’s talk about the losses,” he added.
“I think that’s where you learn the most about yourself and to grow from those tough moments.
“I think that’s where you really grow as a person, as an athlete, driver, from those struggles, from those hard days. What can you learn from it? How can you come back next week and be better?
“We all love the highs. We all love the champagne celebrations. But, it’s really in those hard moments, those tough times, that we learn the most about ourselves and we grow.”
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