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Lance Stroll is the first person to admit his sense of style has come a long way since he joined the Formula 1 grid almost a decade ago. The 25-year-old Aston Martin Racing driver, whose resume includes three podiums from more than 160 race starts, was a self-confessed “sweatpants and t-shirt guy” in the early years of his career. 

Although he’s still a fan of relaxed silhouettes and laid-back ensembles, it’s clear he’s taken some cues from his dad, fashion mogul turned F1 team owner, Lawrence Stroll. “I’ve always been around good taste in fashion,” Lance told Motorsport at BOSS’ Austin store ahead of the US Grand Prix. “I’ve been taught to have an eye for what looks good.” 

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin F1 Team, arrives at the track

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Lawrence made his billions working with the likes of Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger, cementing his place in the fashion industry. Stroll Sr. became such a staple of the business that in 2004, he was selected by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to co-chair the Met Gala — an honour that was recently bestowed upon Lewis Hamilton, who will co-chair the 2025 event. 

“Maybe I’d attend down the line,” Lance said when asked whether he has any interest in the glitzy New York City soirée. “I’m thinking more about race cars right now,” he added. 

As for his on-track clothing, the Canadian revealed he has some long-held superstitions surrounding his boots, gloves and even underwear. 

“You’re going to be pretty grossed out, but I try to drag [my racing boots] out for a whole season,” he said.

“They get more comfortable over time as they’re broken-in but there’s an element of superstition in there, too. If you have a good race during the season you kind of want to hang onto the boots and the gloves,” he said.

“I had lucky underwear for a bit, but that’s when I was eight years old and then I got to 13 or 14 and they started getting tight so I had to give up that superstition.” 

McLaren’s decision not to introduce a new floor design for the United States Grand Prix was made to assess its other new components without “any confusion”.

The Woking team brought a revised front wing and front suspension package, in addition to a series of changes to its rear brake duct furniture and rear wing.

However, McLaren stopped short of introducing a new floor design that has been in progress at its base, electing not to spend the four-week gap between Singapore and Austin fast-tracking it.

Engineering technical director Neil Houldey revealed that the team needed to be completely sure that the in-development floor works before manufacturing it.

He added that the scope of updates that McLaren brought to Austin was quite small, but “should give us a little bit of performance opportunity” further down the line.

Lando Norris appeared to confirm this yesterday after sprint qualifying, noting that the car was “basically the same” as the Singapore spec. The Briton had been given the full set of upgrades for Austin, while Piastri was without the new front wing.

Houldey felt that it was important to judge the other updates in isolation, rather than putting everything together in one package.

“We brought a lot of small upgrades for this event. I don’t really want to go into too many details about what will appear at the next events, but there’ll be more coming, for sure,” Houldey explained.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Andreas Beil

“What we’ve been doing is just continue our development progress throughout the year and at the moment, it turns out, really, that what we want to do is bring something that we know works.

“So we’re not trying to deliver something early. We’re in a good position in the championship.

“But what we don’t want to do is bring any confusion into the team about the results of the components we’re bringing. So we’re waiting and bringing them when they’re ready.

“We want it on the car. We want the performance on the car as soon as we can possibly get it.”

Houldey denied that the limited practice available in a sprint weekend was a factor, reiterating that McLaren simply wanted to make sure any floor upgrades were worthy of being added to the car.

He felt that, although McLaren’s presence in the title battle adds scrutiny to its upgrade path, the team was dealing with it in the right way.

“We’re just ensuring that when we bring the parts, they’re the right ones, and they’re going to bring performance to the track,” Houldey continued.

“Aerodynamically, we already know the upgrades that we’re going to be bringing to the next couple of events. So they’re ready in that sense, but they’re very much in manufacture back at the factory.

“We just bring it to the event that we can get it to in the fastest possible way. So whether it’s a sprint or a standard event, doesn’t make a difference to us.

“From our perspective, we’re fully focused on our own technical development, and it’s important for us to just focus on where we are and what we bring to the races and not what other teams are doing.

“We’re learning what it’s like to be back at the front again. So for sure, the scrutiny that that brings is new to us, and I think we’re dealing with it in the right way.”

Qualifying was also wet for Coppa Shell + 488, the rain twice bringing a halt to the sessions with a flooded track. The first to set off from the pitlane were the Ferrari 488 competitors.

Qwin Wietlisbach (CDP – D&C Racing) set the fastest time in 2m00.983s, which was half a second quicker than the German Schoemer. Wietlisbach was the only man to get under the 2m01s mark, but the times were all high due to the massive amount of rain that was falling on the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

Schoemer, after securing second place, was the cause of the third red flag of the session 21 seconds from the end of Qualifying when he went off and remained stuck in the gravel with the 488 of the Ferrari Katowice team.

Fabrizio Fontana, in third, finished the session ahead of Komarov, Pittorri, Shair, Frascaro and Lindroth, who were the only other drivers to venture out on track, and the top 6 will now go on to dispute the Superpole.

Then it was the turn of the Coppa Shell competitors, expert Ernst Kirchmayr setting the quickest time in 1m58.642s, just a fraction ahead of Dhillon and Bernier.

Acosta and Nussbaumer, two more protagonists of the Ferrari Challenge at Imola, completed Qualifying in fourth and fifth place ahead of another Ferrari stalwart Fons Scheltema. The latter also went off the track at a certain point, but he was able to avoid the barriers.

The fourth red flag of the session was caused by Mitchell Green on the exit of the first Rivazza and he remained stuck in the gravel. The car was quickly removed and the session resumed a few minutes later.

The red flag then came out for the fifth time a few minutes later, when Abe (Formula Racing) ended against the barriers at the Tamburello chicane at high speed after losing control of his 296 under braking. At that moment, the rain was falling copiously, causing the session to be abandoned, and this also contributed to the error of the driver of the #170 Ferrari 296.

Daniel Ricciardo’s final Formula 1 race weekend could have been handled in a better way, his former RB team has admitted.

The Australian was dropped by RB after the Singapore Grand Prix in favour of Liam Lawson, as the squad wants to evaluate the New Zealander’s potential to see if he could be a candidate for Red Bull in 2025 or 2026.

But although the decision to make the driver switch was made well in advance of Singapore, the development was kept quite secret, with there being no confirmation from the team nor Ricciardo over the Marina Bay weekend that he was definitely leaving F1.

So when it became clear post-race that Ricciardo’s career was over, there was a backlash from fans who suggested that Red Bull had given the eight-time winner a disservice by not allowing him a proper send-off.

However, as Motorsport.com revealed, the reality was that Red Bull representatives had spoken to the Ricciardo camp ahead of the Singapore weekend to see if there was interest in him announcing the news before track action got underway, but it was decided not to go ahead with this plan.

Reflecting now on the events of the Singapore weekend, RB team boss Laurent Mekies says that in hindsight, it may well have been better to have done things differently.

“Yes, it was frustrating, and yes, it was not ideal to go through the weekend in that way,” said Mekies. “That is first of all for him, on a professional and on a personal matter, and for the whole team around him.”

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Images

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Mekies confirmed that talks took place before Singapore about how things should play out in public, but once it was decided to keep things secret then both team and driver had to play along with it.

“Daniel was aware,” he added. “We did have discussions before the weekend. For many different reasons, we chose together to go into that weekend without announcing. And from that point onwards, we had to deal with it.

“It’s a decision that, in hindsight, we may or may not do differently. But it’s something that we were, both the team and the drivers, on board to go through that now.”

However, although the way the weekend was handled was far from perfect, Mekies still thinks that the message got through to Ricciardo about how much he was loved and respected by fans and those in F1.

“I think in one way or another, we all found a way to express how much love there is from the sport to Daniel, from the fans to Daniel,” he added.

“I don’t know if it would have been better or worse [to announce it], certainly different, more traditional, but I can hopefully say that the amount of love and empathy we felt through that weekend was something outstanding and something that shows that he’s bigger than an F1 driver, he’s bigger than F1.”

Maverick Vinales did not shy away from the hand gesture he made at a motionless Marco Bezzecchi following the pair’s high-speed crash in the latter stages of Saturday’s sprint race at the Australian Grand Prix.

The factory Aprilia rider had qualified third on the grid for the Phillip Island race but was unable to maintain his position at the start, losing several places to eighth, a position he held for five laps.

Then, amidst crashes and overtaking, Vinales began to make his way up to sixth, behind VR46 Ducati rider Bezzecchi. But despite being the only frontrunner on the medium rear tyre, the Italian fought tooth and nail until the incident on lap 11, two laps from the end of the sprint.

Vinales overtook Bezzecchi approaching Doohan corner and pushed hard under braking, but the Italian lost his reference and didn’t brake where he was supposed to, slamming into the Aprilia from behind.

Both went into the gravel at high speed, fortunately, without serious consequences in terms of injuries, despite Bezzecchi lying still for a short while following the crash. Both riders were conscious after the incident, although Bezzecchi was taken away on a stretcher.

A statement from the Aprilia team said that Vinales was “transferred to the medical centre where he was examined following the contusion of his left elbow. No fractures were reported, but an additional ultrasound exam subsequently highlighted modest post-traumatic swelling. For this reason, the Spanish rider will undergo anti-inflammatory therapy.”

Vinales was confident of racing on Sunday when he spoke to the media. He also explained how events unfolded from his point of view.

“When I crashed I felt a cramp and then I couldn’t feel my hand,” revealed the Spanish rider. “That’s why I was a bit scared.”

Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“Bezzecchi must have misunderstood the braking point. We spoke and he told me that he would come and talk to me afterwards. Let’s see what he says.”

Further conversation was not possible in the immediate aftermath of the race as Bezzecchi went to hospital in Melbourne for further checks. For this reason, Bezzecchi’s point of view and any possible sanction from race direction will also have to wait until Sunday.

Following the initial checks performed at the circuit’s medical centre, Bezzecchi is understood not to have any fractures.

After the crash, with Bezzecchi lying motionless on the ground, Vinales showed him the middle finger, which attracted some criticism.

“I get thrown off at 300 kilometres per hour – what am I going to do, give him a kiss?” was Vinales’ comment on the matter. “At home, I would have done something else.”

Eight-time world champion Marc Marquez said he regarded the crash as a racing incident.

“If you look at it, it looks like it’s Bezzecchi’s fault, but for me, it’s a racing incident.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“In 2017, I had exactly the same situation. I overtook using the slipstream, but then when I arrived at the braking point the wind pushed me out.

“You don’t want to go into the middle of the track because you know that with these bikes if you go in front of the guy you are overtaking, the slipstream sucks the second guy.

“So you never want to be in front because you know it’s a dangerous situation for you. But today the wind was pushing laterally and I think Vinales could not avoid that movement while Bezzecchi couldn’t avoid the sucking.

“But guys, we are riding at 320km/h, shaking, and it’s windy at the end of the straight. So for me it’s a racing incident.”