Max Verstappen is the only missing piece from Lawrence Stroll’s Aston Martin puzzle. Signing the best driver of his generation is an obvious priority, writes JONATHAN McEVOY

Fedoras off to Lawrence Stroll for spending money so wisely and generously in his single-minded ambition to transform Aston Martin into Formula 1’s new superteam. If the great collector will forgive us a piece of advice, there seems to be only one thing missing: Max Verstappen.

Signing the best driver of his generation is the only possible perfect scenario for a team owner who has equipped himself with Adrian Newey, Formula 1’s finest designer, who will soon be taking his drawing board to the shiniest, poshest, letter-of-intent factory in the sport.

It cost £200 million to build at the gates of Silverstone.

Honda have been signed as engine partners for 2026, a host of big-name engineering staff have recently come on board or are in the pipeline, the new wind tunnel is due to open in January and two new US investors – HPS and Accel, both of whom are talking about serious money for big stakes – have been credibly linked to the company. It is valued at £1.5m.

I often hear it said, not least by enthusiastic employees in green clothing, that Newey represents the final piece of the puzzle that Stroll, a driven fashion billionaire from Canada, is putting together.

They forget to mention that there is a missing piece. This is understandable, since one of the current drivers of the team is Lance Stroll, the son of the boss. The other is Fernando Alonso, a two-time world champion with great distinction, now 43 years old.

At some point, one of them could move on to other campaigns at Aston, such as their Le Mans project, which is well underway. Because at some point, hiring Verstappen to coincide with Newey’s first car, in 2026, is the obvious ongoing priority. Not necessary now, but by then.

He could serve as the man who brought Michael Schumacher to Ferrari in the 1990s as the most eye-catching member of an unaffordable team.

Hamilton’s PR boost

Lewis Hamilton’s personnel changes are often rapid, including six managers during his Formula 1 career. But his PR wife, Jo Livingston, is intensifying her relationship with the seven-time world champion by moving from London-based communications agency Freuds to work directly for Hamilton’s company, Project 44.

The geographical division of Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was initially known as the European Grand Prix in 2017, emphasizing one side of its transcontinental status over the other. Its geography, straddling Eastern Europe and Western Asia, is better summed up by the clocks in my hotel lobby: Baku, Dubai, Ankara, Moscow, Tehran.

Mercedes drop upgrade

Mercedes thought they had solved the riddle of their poor form of the past two years. The last few races have put the brakes on the highest of those hopes – but not disastrously.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell both blame the new floor at Spa for the problem.

That ‘upgrade’ is going to be dropped this weekend. It’s the pre-Spa floor here and a case of trying again.

Stroll’s charm offensive

A very clever move by Lawrence Stroll to involve Amanda Newey in courting her design guru husband. The vivacious Mrs Newey was shown around Aston Martin’s impressive factory on the crucial tour in June and was back again this week for the celebratory unveiling of his five-year, £100m deal.

Her presence stands in stark contrast to the fact that Adrian has hardly ever visited the Red Bull factory in the almost 20 years he has been in charge there.

Bearman completes set

Ollie Bearman sounds older than his 19 years, his voice somehow deeper than his lanky youthful appearance would suggest. He is also impressively confident as he starts his first race for Haas in Baku this weekend, ahead of his first full season next year.

And strangely enough, completing the second training session will be a new experience for him.

The Essex talent took part in the first practice session as Haas’ reserve driver and in the third practice session, when he stepped in at the last minute to replace Carlos Sainz for Ferrari’s driver who suffered appendicitis in Jeddah.

Neither Baku nor Jeddah is a place for the faint-hearted. And Bearman vowed to exert himself at the circuit where he won both F2 races last year. He knows how tight the walls are, having injured his car in every session.

The moving legacy of a legend

Tyler Alexander was one of McLaren’s key figures – one of the founding fathers, no less, with Bruce McLaren himself in 1963.

The American helped build the team through his clever balance of knowledge and optimism. “It’s not that life is too short; it’s that death is too long,” he said. “So it’s better to get on with things.”

He stuck to this rule at McLaren on both sides of the Atlantic until Lewis Hamilton became the last driver to win the world title for the team in 2008.

Since Tyler passed away eight years later, his partner Jane Nottage, who became a friend of mine as a former F1 reporter for the Sunday Times, alongside her diverse talents in the media and beyond, has worked tirelessly to create a fitting legacy to honour Tyler’s contribution to motorsport.

So this week’s good news is Alexander’s first scholarship, a one-year postgraduate course at Cranfield University, with placements at McLaren and Team Penske at their racing headquarters in Mooresville, North Carolina. It’s reserved for bright engineering students who are struggling against disadvantage.

The first winner of this golden ticket is Daniyaal Irfan, a 23-year-old from Ampthill in Bedfordshire, who already has a first-class honours degree in aerospace engineering. Remember where you first read his name if he turns out to be the next Tyler James Alexander.