As Lance Stroll crashed on his F1 return, Timo Glock urged Aston Martin to drop the Canadian ahead of F1 2026 as he is “not where he needs to be”.

Stroll is currently contesting his ninth season in Formula 1, with the Canadian having achieved one pole position and three podiums in his 174 starts.

Should Aston Martin continue with Lance Stroll?

But while that’s more than many F1 drivers achieve, he bears the weight of being the ultimate pay driver as his billionaire F1 father, Lawrence Stroll, owns the Aston Martin F1 team.

Although Stroll has scored all but two of Aston Martin’s F1 2025 points, questions have been asked about his commitment to Formula 1, one rumour even linking him to switch from four wheels to the tennis court.

His recent withdrawal from the Spanish Grand Prix didn’t help the situation.

Amidst speculation of a ‘temper tantrum’, as billed by the BBC, that included swearing and shouting and the throwing of a helmet, as claimed by Sky’s David Croft, Stroll did not take up his start position on the Barcelona grid.

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Aston Martin announced: “Over the course of the past six weeks Lance has been experiencing pain in his hand and wrist, which his medical consultant believes is in relation to the procedure he underwent in 2023.

“As a result, his medical team have confirmed that he will not race tomorrow and he will undergo a procedure to rectify these issues before focusing on his recovery.”

That had Croft saying he does “not buy” the story.

But as Stroll returned to the track for the Canadian Grand Prix, he defended his team as he revealed it was his decision to continue racing despite the pain he was feeling.

“I started to feel some pain in my wrist and hand a couple of months ago, but I wanted to keep racing,” he said in the build-up to the Montreal race. “However, the discomfort just became too much, and we made the decision to have medical intervention.

“Naturally, I was disappointed to miss the race in Barcelona, but it was the right call at the time, and I’m looking forward to getting back to racing this weekend.”

Alas, his return to racing included a crash.

The 26-year-old’s FP2 was cut short when he hit the wall coming out of Turn 7, crushing the front-left steering arm on his Aston Martin.

Glock was not impressed.

Asked on Sky Deutschland whether Aston Martin should continue with Stroll next season, the former F1 driver replied: “No.

“Sporting-wise, he’s definitely not where he needs to be after his long time in Formula 1. He has had relatively clear defeats and hasn’t been able to convince with consistency this year, either.

“There’s always a weekend where he seems to be catching up with Fernando Alonso. But over the course of a whole year, he’s simply too far behind [and] too inconsistent. He then makes the mistakes accordingly.

“In the current situation, you would have to reposition yourself to be successful.”

Aston Martin have Stroll under contract for F1 2026, the team revealing he had signed for ‘2025 and beyond’ while Alonso, who broke his points-duck at the Barcelona race, has also been confirmed for next season.

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