Canadian Formula 1 (F1) driver Lance Stroll has dismissed speculation that he may swap his career on the racetrack for a stint on the tennis court. The Aston Martin driver has been flummoxed by rumours suggesting he might abandon his passion for F1 to pursue professional tennis, a theory he attributes to comments made by Sky F1’s lead commentator David Croft.
During the turbulent F1 2023 season, a peculiar rumour started circulating that Stroll could leave Aston Martin, the F1 team owned by his billionaire father Lawrence Stroll, to pursue a tennis career. This speculation was fueled by a prediction made by Croft during an episode of the Sky F1 podcast.
Croft predicted that Stroll might retire from F1 in about a year and a half, suggesting that the young Canadian driver might find another career path more fulfilling. “I don’t think Formula 1 is the sport he wanted to go into when he was younger. He was a massive tennis talent, one of the best youngsters in Canada at the time. I just wonder if he will go off and find something that fulfils him more and brings him more excitement,” Croft said in 2023.
Fast forward to the brink of the F1 2025 season and Stroll is neither gracing the grass courts of Wimbledon nor the clay courts of Roland Garros. Instead, he is gearing up for his fifth season with Aston Martin, partnering with two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso. The team also anticipates welcoming F1 design expert Adrian Newey in March.
In an effort to quash the tennis rumours once and for all, Stroll clarified his position during an interview on The Fast And The Curious podcast. “Be careful, don’t believe everything you read! No, I’m really not that good at tennis! Someone came up with that, I don’t really know how that started brewing,” he stated.
Stroll did concede that he was an active sports participant growing up, but dismissed the idea that he was on the verge of joining the ATP World Tennis tour. “Am I good enough to do that? No. Someone came up with this, I think it was Crofty [David Croft], Crofty said it. Pulled that one out of somewhere, I don’t really know where,” he said.
Looking towards the future, both Stroll and his teammate Alonso remain under contract with Aston Martin as the F1 era ushers in major revamps in chassis and power unit regulations from 2026. Stroll’s commitment to his F1 career demonstrates his unwavering dedication to his team and the sport, despite the perplexing rumours about his supposed tennis talents.
