Lance Stroll is of the view that the difficult 2018 F1 season has made him a ‘more complete driver’ than what he was in 2017.
Stroll had a slightly tough start in 2017 as well with Williams until his home grand prix in Canada where he scored his first points. Immediately in the next race in Azerbaijan, he scored his first and only podium in unusual circumstances.
He eventually ended up with 40 points to be 12th in his debut season – only three points from Felipe Massa. There was certainly room for improvements in his second season but 2018 was a disaster especially with the car he had to drive.
He scored just the six points to be 18th which the Canadian believes wasn’t the true picture as the lack of performance from the car meant, he couldn’t ‘demonstrate’ his true potential and it masked the improvements he thinks he made in the year from 2017.
“I don’t think it’s really fair to compare the two or judge the year in general,” he said to the media including FormulaRapida.net, when asked to compare 2017 against 2018. “It’s been a fire-fighting season with the performance of the car.
“We picked up very few points but the few times that I picked up points were big highlights because we beat quicker cars around us. Same thing in qualifying – I scraped into Q2, got into Q3 in Monza.
“They have really been big achievements because it’s the performance that has been really poor. All in all, I do believe I’m a more complete driver [now] than I was a year ago. But I think that I just haven’t been able to demonstrate that due to the package.
“[It] is the nature of the sport [though] and that’s how it goes some years and you have to accept that as a driver. I don’t think my learning comes down to one thing in particular [in 2018]. It is the combination of things. I would say the main thing is just experience.
“I’ve learned so much with another season under my belt of Formula 1 – time with the engineers, expanding my knowledge of Formula 1, the tyres, racing, qualifying. Just with seat time you learn so much and that’s far from done.
“I just turned 20-years-old and I still believe I’m very far from reaching my full potential. So, every year I try to keep chipping away at it. Over the winter, I’m going to reflect and work on my weaknesses and build on my strengths.”
It seems like Stroll will finally get a chance to shine with Racing Point (Force India) in 2019 alongside a tough and experience competitor Sergio Perez – the team has done well already so far which should help the Canadian.
[Read: Stroll on Williams’ 2018 season]
