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Fernando Alonso will be the oldest driver on the grid in 2026, and while he is showing no signs of retiring any time soon, Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll will know that the future planning needs to start now.
Lawrence Stroll’s tenure as Aston Martin chairman started brightly, but he will not have been satisfied over the last two seasons.
After signing Fernando Alonso to replace Sebastian Vettel, the two-time world champion scored eight podiums in 2023.
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The Silverstone-based team haven’t visited the rostrum since the Sao Paulo Grand Prix that year, with Lance Stroll on a run of five seasons without a podium.
Aston Martin have been extremely ambitious over the last 12 months, hiring Adrian Newey and negotiating exclusive use of Honda’s power units from 2026 onwards.
Stroll will know that his driver line-up might be the next area that he needs to invest in, and if Alonso does walk away at the end of the year, Red Bull star Max Verstappen is likely to be his number one target.
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Lawrence Stroll will target Max Verstappen if Fernando Alonso retires at Aston Martin
Journalist Ronald Vording was speaking about the F1 driver market on the James Allen on F1 Podcast.
He said: “I think Charles [Leclerc] is actually a really interesting bit in this whole conversation because if Fernando quits and if Lewis [Hamilton] quits, then the situations at Aston and Ferrari are, in my opinion, completely different, but only if Charles will stay.
“Because if Charles stays, then Ferrari have, let’s say, a lead driver that they can fully trust long term, and they can bring in a young talent.
“Whereas Aston is a completely different situation, of course, because they’ve always gone for a big signing.
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“They’ve done that with Sebastian Vettel, they’ve done it with Fernando Alonso after him. And if Fernando quits, I think the next one on the list of Laurence Stroll is probably Max Verstappen.
“So I think if Fernando and Lewis both retire at the end of 2026, then the questions that the teams have to answer, so Aston and Ferrari, are completely different.
“But only if Charles Leclerc stays, because if he leaves, then Ferrari has a lot more questions to answer, and then it will be really, really entertaining to see what’s going to happen for 2027.”
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Aston Martin face a conundrum trying to convince Max Verstappen to sign
Stroll has previously approached Verstappen about a move to Aston Martin and was willing to offer him a very lucrative contract.
Verstappen, the master tactician that he is, made the wise choice to stay at Red Bull for at least one more season, knowing that committing to a project before the start of the upcoming rule changes would have made very little sense.
Aston Martin find themselves in a tricky position in their pursuit of Verstappen.
If the car isn’t good enough, Alonso might decide to retire, but convincing Verstappen to join will be nearly impossible.
However, if the car is capable of podiums or even winning races, then it’s almost certainly going to be Alonso achieving those results, and not extending his contract in that scenario seems very unlikely.
That would mean Stroll Sr. would potentially have to part with his son to make room for Verstappen, but whether he would be happy battling for the number one driver spot is yet to be seen.
His previous teammates have suggested he enjoys that unchallenged number one position, especially as Red Bull didn’t pursue Carlos Sainz when he lost his Ferrari seat.
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