Felipe Drugovich reveals how close Lance Stroll came to ‘not continuing’ with Aston Martin in F1

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Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich has revealed how close he was to replacing Lance Stroll at the team during a period where the Canadian wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue racing in Formula 1.

At just 26 years old, Lance Stroll is currently in his ninth season of racing within F1, with seven of those seasons coming at the wheel of the Silverstone-based racing outfit that his father, Lawrence Stroll, owns.

Despite showing glimpses of talent during his first few seasons in the sport, including Stroll’s maiden pole position in 2020, the Aston Martin driver’s performances have left a lot to be desired as he continues to be a member of the prestigious grid.

Stroll’s official contract at Aston Martin will see him race in their iconic green colours until the end of 2026, but it is understood that the Canadian will be racing in the pinnacle of single-seater motorsport for however long he wants, given his father’s ownership of the team.

As revealed by Drugovich, a surprising departure was close to happening ahead of the 2024 F1 season.

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Felipe Drugovich has revealed that Lance Stroll was ‘very close’ to quitting F1 before the 2024 season

Speaking on an episode of the Na Ponta Dos Dedos podcast, the Formula E driver recalled the events that saw him become mightily close to replacing Stroll at Aston Martin ahead of the 2024 F1 campaign.

Drugovich said: “I renewed with them for ’24 and ’25, with a certain, not only hope, but there were conversations about me taking over in ’24, even with the team manager. And there came a time when other drivers were, perhaps, not wanting to continue.

“Anyway, it didn’t work out for me to enter in 2023, and at the end of that year, it was very clear that perhaps it would work out to enter in ’24. And it was there that people seemed to start to shake things up.

“There was going to be an opportunity, and they put the contract in front of me to renew for ’24 and ’25.I said, ‘I’m in the right place, at the right time, let’s go’.

“It seemed like the right moment, the right time again. It was much closer than everyone thought it was. It was very close to Lance, maybe not continuing in 2024.

“Nothing to judge against the circumstances, because I have nothing to do with it, and I too, if I were in their place, perhaps I would do the same thing.

“But, from my perspective, it really is complicated, because I really thought it seemed like everything was opening up, everything is going well.

“They put the contract in front of me again for me to renew, because it was going to happen, and then it ended up not happening, and I’m stuck with this. It is what it is; there’s not much for me to cry about now.”

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Lance Stroll has the ‘safest’ seat out of all the drivers on the Formula 1 grid

Due to the family ties that he has with the top of the pyramid at Aston Martin, Stroll’s F1 seat is considered to be the ‘safest’ out of everyone else’s on the grid.

A damning verdict, considering there are currently three world champions on the grid with a total of 13 titles between them in Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Stroll’s Aston Martin counterpart, Fernando Alonso.

Aston Martin have been told to reconsider Stroll’s future on a number of occasions, but a decision being made by those within the day-to-day operations of the team seems to be out of the question.

It remains to be seen how much longer the Canadian driver will be at the wheel of an F1 car as a full-time driver, but Drugovich’s recent revelation suggests that he has posed the question to himself in the past.

Stroll treats F1 as a job rather than a ‘calling’, which may indicate that he just doesn’t have the same level of passion to win that his on-track rivals have inside them.