Williams on Stroll: 'We may well have a superstar'

Claire Williams praised Lance Stroll for the Canadian's impressive turn around, but insists the 18-year-old rookie is just coming of age.

Stroll endured a difficult start to his F1 campaign, not only on the race track with mistakes and crashes but also away from it where the teenager was the target of criticism from those who questioned his ability to perform at the highest level.

Claire Williams conceded that Stroll's task has been monumental this season, but the Williams driver has put his head down and gone to work on improving his skills and learning the ropes of his new trade.

"I think it is all about hard work and determination," the Grove-based outfit's deputy team principal told Formula1.com.

• Villeneuve: Stroll criticism was warranted

"I know that is easily said, but if you really want to achieve something you have to put in the hard work and the effort. And Lance, so far, has done everything that we wanted him to do.

"We said that all we want to see from him this year was progress. And when you look at the first couple of races it was all about familiarisation and all of that came through.

"He has demonstrated his strength of character and personality in the light of huge pressure.

"He has got a lot more pressure than most rookies do receive and he has just kept his head down and managed – and frankly I don’t know quite how with this amount of pressure – to stay focused and has been able to improve weekend by weekend.

"That finally translated into that incredible turnaround. We knew all along that we had a good talent with Lance – now everybody knows it." 

As Stroll was lambasted by critics in the early part of the season, Williams insists she never lost faith in her driver's ability to deliver the goods.

"When he got that massive criticism in his first six races then I always said, ‘Look at Vettel, Ricciardo or Raikkonen’ – they did not do much better in their first half season.

"They all had similar results. Canada was already a good taste of the things to come, but his Baku result was just phenomenal. And he has earned that result on his own merits.

"It was a bit of a shame that it was not P2, but in the end I think nobody really cares that much about it, least of all him. It was his first podium – that was all that mattered.

"And to be honest, none of us really expected that to happen in his rookie season – but it happened. We may well have a superstar of the future."

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