Report on Business magazine editor Dawn Calleja.Daniel Ehrenworth/The Globe and Mail
Lawrence Stroll has always been an enigma. The Globe and Mail’s first mention of him was in 1990, in a story about the Canadian launch of Tommy Hilfiger’s menswear collection. Stroll is named as Hilfiger’s Montreal-based partner and chair of his company. The next brief nod came in 1998, when Hilfiger bought back the Canadian operation from Stroll and his partner for a mix of cash and stock.
The next summer, Stroll landed at No. 36 on Canadian Business magazine’s inaugural Rich 100, with a net worth of $610 million—a combination of Hilfiger money and his returns as master licencee for Ralph Lauren in Europe. The brief write-up also mentioned that Stroll collected Ferraris and raced on the amateur circuit.
In 2000, Stroll dropped to No. 67, having lost nearly $200 million. Once again, his love of fast cars loomed large with this not-so-prophetic gem: “Stroll collects and races Ferraris, but given Hilfiger’s slumping profits…he may soon be strapped for gas money.”
Not quite. Today, Forbes pegs Stroll’s net worth at US$3.8 billion, making him the world’s 1,048th richest human. Much of that wealth came from his dealings with luxury brand Michael Kors, whose 2011 IPO was a windfall. But a substantial portion is due to his Aston Martin F1 team, which he bought out of bankruptcy in 2018 and is now valued at US$3.2 billion.
That’s not due solely to Stroll’s prowess. The year before he became an F1 owner, Formula One was bought by Colorado-based Liberty Media for US$8 billion. Fans fretted that the americani would ruin the sport. But the truth was, both viewers and sponsors had been in decline for years.
Liberty added new races (including two in the U.S.), loosened its video-sharing rules and, most crucially, launched Drive to Survive in 2019. It was a stroke of marketing genius that turned drivers into superstars. Was Lewis Hamilton famous pre-DTS? Of course—he won seven Drivers’ Championships with Mercedes (before defecting to Ferrari in 2025). But these days, he’s a bona fide member of the glitterati: He designed a capsule collection with Dior and co-chaired the 2025 Met Gala. When his bulldog, Roscoe, died in late September, it made global headlines.
Drive to Survive’s seven seasons are now available in more than 190 countries, and it’s won two Emmys for what is essentially a long-format ad, albeit one that’s slick as hell and a near-perfect melding of on- and off-track drama. (Don’t even get me started on the ridiculous, and ridiculously enjoyable, feature film F1, which so far has grossed US$626 million worldwide.)
F1’s strategy has been remarkably effective: In 2024, Nielsen Sports put its global fan base at 826 million—a year-over-year gain of 90 million new fans. And all those new fans have translated to major sponsorship opportunities for even mid teams like Aston Martin.
Now, Stroll is funnelling those extra hundreds of millions into building an F1 champion. Find out how in Grant Robertson’s cover story, “Fast and furious.”
And about that cover: Stroll was photographed in May at the Monaco Grand Prix by official photographer Lewis Bryant, one of the rare few allowed trackside in a sport notorious for its secrecy — part of what makes it so much fun.