Stroll singles out Aston Martin frustration behind GT racing move

The Canadian, who will compete in this weekend’s GT World Challenge Europe round at Paul Ricard, admitted that the lack of competitive machinery at the Silverstone-based team influenced his desire for a change of scenery and a different mindset during the current F1 break.

Stroll will share Comtoyou Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo with former Marussia F1 driver Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya. The outing marks only his third major sports car appearance, following two starts at the Daytona 24 Hours in prototype machinery in the mid-to-late 2010s.

Explaining his thoughts ahead of the Paul Ricard race, Stroll said via Motorsport.com: “I really enjoyed racing the 24 Hours of Daytona. It’s a race I truly loved. 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.”

The Aston Martin team have largely endured a challenging start to the 2026 F1 season, with the team only completing one race – the Japanese Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso – through the first three rounds of the campaign so far.

The team have largely been plagued with issues with its power unit, particularly the vibration it produces, which has made completing a race a particularly difficult feat for the team to achieve.

Earlier, Stroll also noted how he spoke to Max Verstappen about the possibility of participating in the GT racing event at Paul Ricard.

The Canadian revealed how his plan was hatched over dinner during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend. Verstappen, although not physically present at the race, had his team represented at the event over the weekend.

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