New balls please? Lance Stroll responds to crazy tennis career switch rumour

Don’t expect Lance Stroll to be gracing the lush lawns of Wimbledon any time soon, for he is not interested in a career switch from F1 to tennis.

While this crazy rumour can be traced back to earlier on in the F1 2023 season, it gathered momentum again during the quiet summer break period when respected journalist Ben Anderson said Stroll was mulling over his F1 future and contemplating a new life as a tennis professional.

That rumour spread like wildfire amongst the F1 community, mostly laughed off as a sign that we were deep into ‘silly season’ mode as we all patiently waited for F1 to return to our lives.

Lance Stroll laughs off tennis switch rumours

Additional reporting by Sam Cooper

And Stroll has given the rumour the same treatment, making fun of what would have been quite a shocking career switch.

“好吧,如果我要去旅游,我better work on my backhand a little bit, because I don’t think I’m quite at that level yet,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, at Zandvoort.

“我的意思是,我想我很好。但我确实n’t know if I’m ready to go up against [Novak] Djokovic and [Carlos] Alcaraz just yet.

“I haven’t really thought about it, picking up tennis as a career.”

Stroll went even further by saying that there isn’t a single career switch he is interested in at the moment and his full focus is on racing, even if one day there will be a time where he realises that his heart isn’t in it anymore.

“One day we’re all going to wake up and make that decision, I think every driver on this grid,” he said. “But right now I’m thinking about the race. For sure I want to keep racing. It’s what I love to do.”

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What are Lance Stroll’s hopes for the Dutch Grand Prix?

Lance Stroll will begin his Dutch Grand Prix race from just outside the top 10 on the grid, but is confident he can return to a points-paying position and undo a tyre strategy mistake that occurred in mixed conditions on Saturday.

“I think we were just a little bit early on the last set of inters in Q2, when the track was drying up and at its best,” he said.

“We were on our third lap on that tyre, and I could just feel the tyre is getting chewed up by the track drying up, so didn’t really get the peak of a tyre at the right time in the session.

“I mean, those are the kinds of things that you’ve got to be spot-on with. And you know, sometimes you get it right. Just missed it a bit. Changing conditions, are always tough. But I was feeling good in the car. I think we can have a good race.”

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