Stroll shrugs off 'team leader' tag at Williams

Lance Stroll (CDN) Williams with the media.
© XPB 

Lance Stroll insists that he shouldn't be viewed as Williams' lead driver in 2018.

Stroll made his Formula 1 début 12 months ago, and captured a podium in Baku during his maiden season.

Even so, there was never any question that Stroll was second driver to the vastly more experienced Felipe Massa.

But with Massa now retired from the sport, he starts his sophomore season as the de facto senior man in the line-up compared to Russian rookie Sergey Sirotkin.

"Lead the team is maybe the wrong word,” Stroll said when asked if that made him the team leader in 2018.

"I have a year under my belt compared to Sergey," he agreed. "But at the same time we’re all in it together.

"There’s not a lead driver and a second driver, it’s one team and we want to get the most out of the package that’s available."

At 19 years old, Stroll will still be the youngest man on the grid in 2018. By comparison, Sirotkin is practically long in the tooth at 22.

Stroll insisted that regardless of the change in team composition over the winter, it would be business much the same as usual this season.

“My job remains the same, regardless of who is on the other side of the garage,” said the Canadian.

He will continue to be supported by race engineers James Urwin and Luca Baldisserri. The Italian previously worked with Stroll at Prema in F3.

“I have a group of people I work with and we want to get the most out of our package," said Stroll. "Our meetings are the same, everything’s the same.

"Of course we don’t have the most experienced line-up but there are some good people around us.

"There is a lot of experience around the engineering table in order to help us," he pointed out. "So I believe we have a good team in place going into the season.”

"That’s the objective for this year, just like it was for last year."

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