RacingLance Stroll put together a GT3 seat at Paul Ricard in about a week and will use Formula 1’s early-season break as a reset. The Aston Martin Formula 1 driver will race the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup opener with Comtoyou Racing, sharing an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo at Circuit Paul Ricard. The six-hour race starts Saturday at 18:00.
Stroll joins Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya in the Belgian squad’s Vantage GT3 Evo for his first GT World Challenge Europe appearance. It is a one-off start built around the current F1 calendar gap and Aston Martin’s rough opening to the year.
Explaining the move, Stroll said he wanted a different rhythm while the F1 season pauses. “I really enjoyed racing the 24 Hours of Daytona. It’s a race I truly loved,” he said. “Since then, I’ve been very focused on Formula 1, but this year we don’t have a very competitive car, and we now have some time without races. So, it was an idea to change things up a bit - a different mindset during the break. Jean-Michel [Baert, Comtoyou team owner] was very accommodating, and we organised everything in about a week. So, a big thank you to Jean-Michel. That’s why I’m here racing this weekend,” Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Formula 1 driver, told Motorsport and other media.
A bruising start in grand prix racing frames the cameo. After three rounds Stroll has yet to record a classified finish, Fernando Alonso has not scored, and Aston Martin sit eleventh of eleven in the standings. The Paul Ricard run gives Stroll mileage in a current-spec GT3 and a chance to recalibrate away from the F1 grind.
He will not have a quiet night. Stroll’s entry lines up against a Max Verstappen-affiliated effort represented by Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Chris Lulham. That trio is one of several deep line-ups in a big Endurance Cup field, and they provide a direct reference point for Stroll as he returns to multi-driver racing.
This will be just Stroll’s third major sportscar outing. He previously raced prototypes at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in 2016 and 2018, experiences he cited as part of the appeal of coming back to long-distance racing. Paul Ricard offers a different test with the six-hour format shifting from late afternoon into night, and a pitlane full of teams that know GT3 inside out.
Comtoyou Racing has moved quickly to slot him in. The plan came together fast, the car is familiar in brand if not in category, and the clock on Saturday night will show whether the reset delivers the feel Stroll wants.