Inside Line: Has Stroll spent $200-million on Lance's F1 career?

Thus, when doing the maths over breakfast today, it dawned on me that Lawrence has spent an enormous amount of money on his son.

101,000,000+40,000,000+20,000,000+15,000,000+15,000,000 + etc = 200,000,000 (200-million!)

Like all of us, I am not privy to official contract details that stipulate exactly how much Stroll has spent with Williams, or what it cost to get young Lance through an extensive karting career with the very best at his disposal.

Ditto in his junior single-seater where teams were bought and optimised to maximise the youngster's opportunities and as a result the kid was champion in everything he raced.

With my own previous research on costs of a junior racing career coupled to numerous sources reporting on what the Stroll's have spent over the years, the figures are unlikely to be way off the mark, in fact they may well be conservative!

A realistic estimate of what Stroll senior would have spent on his lad's karting and junior single-seater campaigns would be combined to cost around $40-million, lob in the $20-million it is said to have cost to test with Williams at several circuits around the globe in 2016, plonk another $15-million for his rookie season with the Grove outfit and another $15-million for this diabolical season.

And here we are not including the Stroll entourage trouping to the kid's races all over the globe, and trust me these people don't do coach or budget and 40 races down the road, it adds up.

Without a calculator, I can justify the headline because that's around about what Lawrence has spent, and who knows what he will still spend in years to come...

The old adage of how to become a millionaire in F1, start off as a billionaire, won't apply to Lawrence Stroll who is worth $2.7 billion and reportedly, that fortune is growing at a consistent rate.

Furthermore, a guy of his calibre and connections is capable of turning Racing Point into a significant F1 operation, the value could double or triple. Properly managed, a loss is unlikely.

I always say to anyone who will listen: if I were Lawrence, with racing clearly in his blood, I would do (almost) the exact same thing for my kid, except f#ck Force India, I would just buy Mercedes!