Under-fire Stroll gets strong backing from Williams

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Williams driver Lance Stroll has won the support of his team after securing eighth place in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.

Stroll has been under fierce criticism after a lacklustre start to his Formula 1 career. Particularly painful were remarks from fellow Canadian driver Jacques Villeneuve. The former world champion labelled Stroll's performance so far as the "worst rookie performance" in the history of the sport.

But Stroll continues to get the backing of Williams. Deputy team principal Claire Williams insisted the 18-year-old had already done enough to prove himself.

"The skills he demonstrated did not look like a rookie," she said after Stroll earned his first championship points in Montreal.

"The most important thing is that he did it himself," Williams told La Presse newspaper. "It was not a result by default but because of several overtakes.

"He has proved he deserves his place in F1 and silenced his detractors," she added.

Villeneuve beats up on 'worst rookie ever' Stroll

Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe was also exhilarated by Stroll's first top ten finish.

"The way he drove today and the result he got, it feels like a race win," Lowe told Motorsport.com. "Actually coming off the pit wall, with the instinct of how I felt, I started heading towards the podium!

"It was only ninth. But it seriously felt like a race win because we know it has been a very, very difficult introduction to the sport for him.

"I think he went out there today and showed that he could drive. The talent was all there, the race craft was fantastic. Those points didn't fall in his lap, he went and fought for them.

"He handled some pretty tricky situations, like the traffic in Turn 1. There was lots of stuff that could have easily been mishandled," Lowe pointed out. "He is going to have so much more confidence that he now knows what it takes."

Stroll's father and sponsor, billionaire fashion mogul Lawrence Stroll, said he "couldn't be prouder" of his son.

"I think my son is where he should be right now. You saw the races just as I did, and you know that he had some bad luck.

"He has just done his seventh race in F1, so everyone has to be patient," he told Le Journal de Montreal. "But he did an extraordinary race here."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.