Misinformation. It’s the bane of journalism’s existence. Formula 1’s silly season brings up silly stories about drivers and all their “plans” to shift teams or retire from the sport. More often than not, they’re proved fake after the silly season dies down and F1 returns after its summer break. That’s precisely what happened with $50 million-worth driver Lance Stroll. Wondering what rumors were going around about him? He was tipped to take on Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz in the not-so-distant future!

Yes, during the summer break, while intra-F1 rumors weren’t as abundant and absurd as they usually are, Stroll’s possible career switch to tennis caught everyone’s attention. Like always, the driver was caught off-guard by this as well, and the Canadian addressed the speculations at this weekend’s Dutch GP.

Will Lance Stroll ever face Novak Djokovic in a professional match?

First things first. News came out that Stroll said this about a prospective tennis career in Zandvoort: “I like to think I’m pretty good, but I don’t think I’m ready to go against Djokovic and Alcaraz yet.” But in reality, he was asked how he was doing after recovering from an infection during the break. As quoted by Formula Passion, Stroll said, “I’m doing quite well, but I don’t know if I’m ready to face Alcaraz and Djokovic.” [Translated by Google] He clearly meant this sarcastically, considering all the tennis speculations.

Stroll moved on to addressing the tennis rumors, making his own speculations. He said, “I really don’t know. Who was it that invented it? Surely, they were having a few beers on the bus, thinking about my tennis matches. Better ask them. It was certainly a strange thing. I don’t know how it came to their mind. I never really thought about taking tennis back.” As an F1 driver at the moment, he made his priorities clear. As much as he loves tennis, he loves F1 more and has no intention to leave before his time’s up.

He added, “One day, we will all wake up and make the decision to quit. It will happen to every driver on the starting grid. But at the moment, I am thinking about tomorrow’s race. I will certainly be there in 2024, and I intend to race as long as possible.”

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With this, not only did he squash all the Djokovic and Alcaraz reasons for not switching to tennis, but he also shut down the entire tennis charade. As funny as it may sound, Stroll wasn’t the only driver to have misinformation about him going around in the Zandvoort paddock.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have more than just Aston Martin in common

As drivers walked into the paddock for Sunday’s race, Fernando Alonso looked like he had a bandage taped to his hand. Speculations immediately started going around that he’d joined Daniel Ricciardo in the list of injured drivers. While his presence in the paddock meant he wouldn’t miss the race, Alonso fans were worried about how he’d fare. Well, turns out that was all misinformation, and the two-time champion didn’t really have any injury.

Per the video posted by Formula Directa on Twitter, “We see that what Fernando was carrying was not a bandage, but a bag.” Even though this rumor wasn’t as extensive as the one crafted around Stroll and tennis, it was misinformation either way. And unlike the “drunk” journalists who made up the Stroll rumors, Formula Directa apologized for its errors.

Did you ever believe the rumors about Lance Stroll potentially giving tennis a go? While challenging Novak Djokovic might be out of the question, could he possibly make a name for himself in the ATP Tour?

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