Strolꦡl has struggled to shake off the 'pay driver' tag ever since he made his F1 debꦡut with Williams in 2017, with him bringing a financial package courtesy of his billionaire father Lawrence. 

The 24-y♏ear-old Canadian joined Racing Point after the team was bought by a consortium of investors led by his father, who rebranded the team as Asto🌸n Martin in 2021. 

Having arrived in F1 on the back ๊of a dominant, title-winning F3 campaign, Stroll has gone on to claim one pole position and three podium finishes in his grand prix to date. 

Bu🍎t that has failed to stop critics from claiming Stroll is only on the F1 grid due to his father's money. 

Former team manager Windsor believes Stroll’s pr🐭esence in F1 has ultimat♛ely been a positive for the sport. 

“You could argue that Lance Stroll is the greatest pay driver of all time because, yes, he’s there because his dad is paying all the bills, but at least his dad has gone out and created a new team out of 🦩an old one, Aston Martin,” Windsor said. 

“The payment for Lance to be in Formula 1 has been a very constructive thing and it’s given a lot of 🅷jobs to a lot of people and it’s a whole new thing. 

“So in that sense you’ve got to say: ‘Wow, tඣhat’s the perfect use of being a pay driver – and he’s got a reasonable amount of t🌺alent as well.’” 

Windsor pointed out that some of tཧhe 🍃best F1 drivers of all time had to pay their way onto the grid one way or another. 

He continued: “If you go through the grid, quite𝓰 a lot of drivers a🐽t some point would have had to have begged and borrowed money to get to the next level of motor racing. And does that make them a paying driver?

“[Look at] Nigel Mansell mortgaging ℱhis house to do five Formula 3 races with March in 1978: does that make him a paying driver? It kind of does, doesn’t it? If he hadn’t paid that money to March, he wouldn’t have raced in ’78 and probably would never have made Formula 1.

“Niki Lauda [got] a bank loan to get𒅌 the BRM deal. Michael [Schumacher], I g💃uess, at some point [was a pay driver].

“Everybody who’s an Aston Martin fan should be very grateful that Lance Stroll is a Formula 1 driver, becau🎶se if he wasn’t his father wouldn’t have bought the team and it wouldn’t be Aston Martin.

“The w🐻hole thi꧑ng is hinged around Lance Stroll. Without him, there wouldn’t be an Aston Martin Formula 1 team because his dad wouldn’t be doing it.

“Without Stroll there would be no Aston Martin, so there’s no point even thinking: ‘They need a better driver than Stroll’ – anybody who thinks that doesn’t under𓆉stand th🌺e genesis of the team.

“I don’t think they think in terms of [winning] the Constructors’ Championship🐈, I think they just want to go out and do was well as they can in every race. Obviously there are budgetary controls now that were not around before but, equally, they’ve got much more money as a team than they’ve ever had before and they’re going into that great new factory with all those facilities, they’ve got very good p༒eople there still.

“So they will be hoping that, on the back of all that, they can be up there with Red Bull. That’s w✤hat they’re hoping.

“And I think the old man thinks, as long as they’ve got Lance in one car, they’re 90 per c🐻ent of the way there. All they need is another driver that Lance can match himself against and can maybe win some races if Lance isn’t winning races.

“I’m sure that’s how he thinks. I’m sure he thinks if that car is capable of winning a World Championship, Lance Strol🔯l is quite capable of being World Champion.

“And I don’t think Lawrence Stroll would be in Formula 1 if he didn’t think that – any more than any driver would be in Formula 1 if they didn’t think they cou🧸ld win a grand prix, and therefore the W🐼orld Championship. There’s a massive amount of ambition there.”

Stroll currently sits ninth in the 2023 F1 championship with a best result of fourth in Australia, while teammate168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Fernando Alonso lies third in the standings with six ꦅpodium finishes from 11 races.