Formula 1 team owner could drop his own son to sign Max Verstappen

When it came to light last month that Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll was pursuing legendary engineer Adrian Newey for the 2025 Formula 1 season, it was also suggested that he might not stop there and would go after three-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen as well.

Newey has been with Red Bull since 2006, but he announced that he would be leaving the team after 19 seasons at the end of 2024. Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull that extends through the 2028 season, but it is believed that there is a clause in his deal which would allow him to leave early in the event that certain key personnel depart.

Newey is believed to be one of those key personnel, and now Autosprint, the respected Italian publication which correctly predicted that the British designer would sign with Aston Martin despite numerous (yet totally unfounded) links to Ferrari, is reporting that Stroll is indeed pursuing the 26-year-old Dutchman's signature.

Verstappen moving to Aston Martin, which ironically served as the title sponsor of Red Bull from 2018 to 2020, would also keep him tied to Honda, which is set to replace Mercedes as the Silverstone outfit's engine supplier in 2026 as a new era of Formula 1 regulations gets underway. Red Bull, on the other hand, are set for a switch from Honda to Ford.

Stroll is aiming to have Aston Martin at the top of Formula 1 and challenging for race wins by the time this new era begins, and signing the 61-time Grand Prix winner would be a great way of doing that. The question is whose seat he would take, given the fact that both Aston Martin drivers are currently under contract through 2026.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both recently signed contract extensions to stay in their current seats for at least another two seasons.

While Alonso is already 43 years old and would be 45 by the conclusion of the 2026 season, it is believed that it is the team owner's own son who is on the hot seat.

Lance Stroll on the hot seat at Aston Martin

There is growing belief that negotiations between the elder Stroll and Verstappen are already underway, and that Verstappen's signature would result in Lance being shifted over to Aston Martin’s World Endurance Championship program.

Lance has often been viewed as a "pay driver" during his Formula 1 career, which is now in its eighth season, given the fact that his multi-billionaire father bought him a seat at Williams for upwards of $80 million and then proceeded to literally buy him the entire Racing Point team, which has since been rebranded as the British luxury sports car brand Aston Martin.

Though his results have largely been underappreciated for that very reason, he has been consistently beaten by Alonso, and calling Verstappen an upgrade over the 25-year-old Canadian would be one of the greatest understatements in the history of the sport.

Of course, there is always a chance that Alonso could decide to retire for a second time before 2026, but given his new contract, his decision not to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, Aston Martin's unparalleled investment in their facilities as they aim to ascend to the top of Formula 1, and perhaps most notably, the addition of Newey, that probably isn't going to happen.

Plus, if he retires now, there will be no second comeback. Even Aston Martin fan Tom Brady's NFL career did indeed have an end date.

All things considered, the reports of Stroll's pursuit of Verstappen cannot be ignored. Not only is the source reliable, and not only would a Newey-Verstappen reunion make sense amid a sweeping set of new regulations less than two years from now, but it fits the mold of what Stroll has done since taking over the team.

In 2021, he signed four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, and he pulled off what was considered an unexpected move by getting another multi-time world champion in Alonso to replace him.

Signing Verstappen, whose frustration with the current state of things at the Milton Keynes-based team has become increasingly evident, would keep up that trend of bringing in somebody who ranks as one of Formula 1's all-time greatest drivers.

The one trend that may have to be broken, however, is signing those drivers to fill the seat alongside his own son. Instead, it may be Lance needing to move out to make room. If that happens, then perhaps Formula 1 fans can finally say for certain that Lawrence Sheldon Strulovic is indeed serious about building a world championship contender.