Lawrence Stroll is convinced that the new Aston Martin F1 team made the right choice in retaining his son Lance in their 2021 driver line-up alongside new arrival Sebastian Vettel.
Signing the four-time world champion meant that the former Racing Point team had to drop one of their existing drivers, and it was Sergio Perez who missed out. The Mexican has now been snapped up by Red Bull.
But Lawrence Stroll was unrepentant about the decision to release Perez - who secured his maiden F1 win Sakhir - in favour of retaining Lance, pointing out that the younger driver had also had a strong season to justify his place.
"Lance's performance on track last year for a 21-year-old was extremely impressive," he insisted in an exclusive interview with BBC Sports this week.
"There was the pole in Turkey, when we all know in the wet it is more about the driver than the car, leading the race for 30 laps until part of the front wing broke.
"There were two podiums and some bad luck - a tyre blew at Mugello - that would have been another podium," he pointed out.
"At 21 he did a stellar job, an incredible job. I wish him, like any father would wish any son, the best he could possibly do, as long as it makes him happy. That's what counts."
Lance certainly had his strongest season to date in F1 in 2020, and he commended the RP20 as by far the best car he had driven in his four seasons in F1 since his debut with Williams in 2017.
“If you get a good car, you get good results, and then you just build confidence from there,” Stroll told Motorsport.com. "I proved a lot to really to mainly myself.
"I just answered a lot of questions to myself that I've been asking myself in the last few seasons up until I had the opportunity to sit in a car that really performs.
“Especially in the beginning of your career, when you're in a bad car and you don't know what it's like to be in a good car until you sit in one, you kind of start to question what your ability is like. If it is as good as the others that are in good cars. You just don't know what a good car feels like.
“Am I capable of delivering results?” he added. “To finish up at the front? Am I capable of qualifying up at the front? You just don't get those results.
"[That was] until I sat in last year's car and I realised how much of a difference there was, and how much I could also build on my driving being in a good car.
“One of the biggest advantages of being in a good car is what you can get out of yourself. It gives you so much more confidence driving the car. It allows you to attack the corners much harder and just push the car much harder."
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