{"id":595484,"date":"2026-04-09T10:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595484\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:52:10","slug":"aston-martin-f1-struggles-a-factor-in-surprise-gt-outing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595484\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Martin F1 struggles a factor in surprise GT outing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lance Stroll<\/a> says Aston Martin\u2019s ongoing woes in Formula 1 played a role in his decision to enter this weekend\u2019s GT World Challenge Europe event at Paul\u00a0Ricard.<\/p>\n

The Canadian will take advantage of an unexpected gap on the F1 calendar to contest the opening GTWCE Endurance Cup event of 2026<\/a>, driving Comtoyou Racing\u2019s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo with Roberto\u00a0Merhi<\/a> and Mari Boya.<\/p>\n

It will mark just his third major\u00a0sportscar outing, following two previous appearances at the Daytona 24 Hours in prototype machinery in the mid-to-late 2010s.<\/p>\n

Stroll\u2019s Aston Martin team has struggled for both performance and reliability at the start of F1\u2019s new era this year, despite significant investment in infrastructure and the high-profile signing of Adrian Newey.<\/p>\n

Its works partnership with Honda has also been strained by an\u00a0uncompetitive power unit that suffers heavily from vibrations. Across the opening three rounds, Stroll is yet to register a classified finish, while his team-mate Fernando\u00a0Alonso<\/a> has also not scored a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed racing the 24 Hours of Daytona. It\u2019s a race I truly loved,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cSince then, I\u2019ve been very focused on Formula 1, but this year we don\u2019t have a very competitive car, and we now have some time without races.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it was an idea to change things up a bit – a different mindset during the break.\u00a0Jean-Michel [Baert, Comtoyou team owner] was very accommodating, and we organised everything in about a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, a big thank you to Jean-Michel. That\u2019s why I\u2019m here racing this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gilles <\/p>\n

Gilles Magnus, Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3<\/p>\n

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Comtoyou Aston is registered in the Pro class, which features 18 entries as part of a larger 59-car grid.\u00a0Stroll believes\u00a0sportscar racing offers a more open competitive landscape, giving him and his team a realistic shot at victory if \u201ceverything comes together\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked what his goal was for the weekend, Stroll said: \u201cEnjoyment –\u00a0and it\u2019s also a race.\u00a0In Formula 1, you don\u2019t always have the opportunity to win.<\/p>\n

“Here, it\u2019s very competitive, but even if it\u2019s our first time and we lack experience, if everything comes together – good set-up, good feeling – winning is possible. That doesn\u2019t really exist in Formula 1. That\u2019s also a big motivation for me to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of racing at Paul\u00a0Ricard was conceived over the Japanese GP on 27-29 March, where Stroll met some of his friends, including ex-grand prix driver Merhi, over dinner.<\/p>\n

There has been renewed interest among F1 drivers in\u00a0sportscar racing, with Max Verstappen<\/a> in particular generating headlines for his recent endeavours at the Nordschleife-based NLS series.<\/p>\n

Stroll revealed he spoke to\u00a0Verstappen about his GT plans during the Suzuka weekend.\u00a0\u201cWe talked about whom to contact, and since he\u2019s already involved in GT racing, we discussed it a bit. Everyone enjoys driving GT3 cars – they\u2019re fun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he would be open to further outings in this discipline, Stroll added: \u201cIf I feel good physically and mentally, yes – I\u2019d like to do more races during the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n

Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n

Take our survey<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lance Stroll says Aston Martin\u2019s ongoing woes in Formula 1 played a role in his decision to enter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[8541,64,63,817,813,816,165556,10310,85,290697],"class_list":{"0":"post-595484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-aston-martin-racing","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-gt-world-challenge-europe-endurance","15":"tag-lance-stroll","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-stroll-aston-martin-f1-struggles-a-factor-in-surprise-gt-outing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}