Stroll in the Park - the sequel: Lance may not have as many fans as others, but he's not the driver they make him out to be

Lance Stroll. The name brings with it a variety of feelings and opinions whenever it is uttered amongst F1 fans.

This F1 fan of course has only positive feelings and opinions when it comes to him, a fact that I was able to showcase with my shadowing of him during the Australian Grand Prix in 2024.

A year later, I was back in the Melbourne paddock and once again planned to shadow the enigmatic Canadian across the weekend.

But this year was going to be a little bit different.

Perhaps this so-called ‘only fan’ title that I have given myself for Lance was misguided.

Could it be possible that more of us existed?

Before we get to that, we have to move back to the Thursday. The traditional media day. A day that involved me sitting at a table with Lance to get my first opportunity to talk with him.

It was an interesting start to the session. Minutes before Stroll spoke to the media, his teammate Fernando Alonso had given ten minutes of his time to a packed media gathering.

The minute Alonso left, around two-thirds of the media left with him, leaving a fairly small pack of journalists remaining to speak with Stroll.

Now this isn’t overly unusual for a Stroll media session. As discussed previously, Stroll isn’t exactly known for his long answers. He likes to keep it sharp and to the point, keeping up a strong exterior wall that very few people get behind.

There was also the small fact that Stroll’s open media session would end only five minutes before the first press conference of the year, giving media very little time to get from the paddock to the press conference in the media centre.

But, no matter how you perceive this supposed lack of interest in Stroll’s open media session, for me, it was nothing but a win. I was in a prime position to ask him as many questions as I could.

I started off by asking him how his off-season was and how he was feeling heading into his ninth season in F1. His answer was very typically Lance Stroll.

“It was nice,” he told me. “Similar to the other ones, you know, just recharging the batteries a bit, training, getting ready for the next season, just the usual stuff, but it’s been good.”

It was then on to the hard hitting stuff: His thoughts on Australia being back as the opening round of the season.

“It’s a place I always enjoy coming back to. I have good memories here,” he said.

“The last couple of years, we had good races here, good results.

“I like the track, I like the atmosphere around the weekend, so yeah, a place I enjoy coming back to.”

While not quite a wall breaker, it brought with it more words and a bit of a smile.

(Photo by Getty Images)

But I had one more ace up my sleeve to really try and crack through into something different. Something that couldn’t fail when getting deep inside the mind of a Canadian; ice hockey.

Recently the entire nation of Canada had been swept up in national pride during the NHL’s 4 Nations Face Off tournament, a tournament which Canada defeated the US to take home the trophy.

I sniffed my opportunity to go in deep for the Canadian jugular and ask him just what he thought of it.

“I watched a couple of the games,” he answered with a smile.

“I saw there was one in Montreal that I didn’t get a chance to go to, but it was nice to see us take the W at the end.”

Perfect. I had cracked through to a point where he was beaming with national pride and set a lighter tone to close out the session.

My next opportunity to chat with him didn’t come till Saturday, as the usual post practice media sessions were canned, making way for a new model of the drivers simply giving one set of answers to a TV session and not speaking to the written press.

I managed to get something surprising in the meantime. Something that could only add weight to my defence of Stroll.

That something was a comment from former F1 driver and current Aston Martin team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa.

In sitting down with him for an in-depth chat, de la Rosa was quick to defend Stroll when I asked him about whether he never gets the credit he truly deserves in the sport.

“He’s one of the best surprises I’ve had in Formula One,” de la Rosa said.

“He’s super easy to work with, he’s very professional, and he just loves racing.

“He’s very similar to Fernando in his dedication, his feedback is outstanding, and I think he can surprise many people.“He definitely needs more respect.”

With words like those, it was quick to quash my disappointment of missing a chance to chat with Stroll on Friday.

Which then led me into Saturday. A day that was filled with many qualifying surprises, and one that saw Stroll qualify in 13th place, one spot behind teammate Alonso.

As usual, the interest from the media in the mixed zone for Lance was limited, giving me a perfect chance to ask him about how he felt he could do in the rain during the race.

“I think that’s quite car dependent,” he told me.

“I think that when you do well in the wet, the car gives you confidence, and when you don’t, the car doesn’t, so I think those things change quite quickly.”

A short and sharp Stroll answer to end the Saturday, but that would lead into a Sunday full of excitement, which started off with a chance meeting.

Walking through the fans before the race, I met a bonafide Lance Stroll fan waiting on the Melbourne Walk, complete with a large flag plastered with Stroll all over it and the words “Live Love Lance”.

That fan was Tanya Haywood, who had flown down from Sydney to support Stroll.

When questioned about her fandom for him, as well as her thoughts on him as a driver, she was quick to ring in the praise that was only music to my ears.

“Last year Alonso had more crashes than Lance. Statistically, Hamilton had a worse qualifying last year than Lance,” she said.

"He’s got more pole positions than Piastri. He’s not the driver they make him out to be.

“Anytime he gets a good race, he’s never mentioned. He’s only ever mentioned when he has a bad one.”

She said that she wasn’t the only Lance Stroll fan at the circuit that weekend, either.

“I’ve seen a few others,” she said. “It’s really nice to get to know other people and actually talk about him in a positive light.”

Was my constant positivity and praise for him rubbing off and making its way out there into the universe?

It seemed as though somehow it was, and that happy mood on the Sunday morning was only going to carry out for the rest of the day.

Prior to the race, I happened to walk past Stroll as he made his way to the parade lap. In doing so I offered him a quick good luck, to which he gave me a thumbs up. This came off the back of witnessing a nice moment with him stopping for a photo with a young fan in the paddock, adding light to this cold exterior that he is often perceived as having.

After those moments, it was race time. A wet and eventful race would follow, and a strong drive from Stroll saw him navigate all the events to end up in a strong sixth place and equal his best-ever start to a season.

After the rac,e I was right down to the mixed zone to speak to him, where Stroll spoke of making his way through the field and keeping his head out of trouble in short and sharp answers.

When I was able to finally get a question in and ask him about how he felt it would set him up for the rest of the year, he also delivered a very typical Stroll answer to me, albeit in a more energetic and buoyant mood than usual.

“We have to keep pushing and make the car faster,” he told me. “I think today was one of those races, you know, we got a lot out of it, but we didn’t have crazy good pace. So yeah.”

While it wasn’t the smile and wink he ended the weekend with me a year ago, it was still a decent way to end another year of shadowing Stroll around Albert Park – and celebrating the fact that my fandom and defence of him seems to be spreading out wider than I could ever imagine.

This article was originally written for The Roar. You can read the published version here