Stroll Sr keeps his faith in Williams despite 'rude awakening'

The father and son duo of Lawrence and Lance Stroll remain committed to Williams for the future despite the massive under-performance of the team's troubled FW41.

The Grove-based outfit has been nowhere near holding its own at the top end of Formula 1's mid-field since the season got underway in Melbourne.

Lance Stroll salvaged four points in Baku last month, the team's total tally so far, but the feat was the result of circumstances and favourable terrain for Williams.

However, the bitter disappointment linked to the FW41 and the difficulties in pulling the team out of the doldrums haven't yet enticed the Stroll family to search for an alternative to Williams for 2019.

"We're not there yet," Stroll Sr told Motorsport.com in Spain.

"I believe in Williams, I believe in the team. Clearly they got it wrong so far.

"I do believe this is a rude awakening, and hopefully it will bring the best out of the people, and they'll fix it. I'm sure not as quick as we'd like, and not as quick as they'd like either.

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"But we're not going anywhere else," he insisted.

"Obviously the car clearly isn't where we hoped and wanted to be, it's quite a way off. We struggled when we came here for testing, and we're still struggling. So it's pretty apparent to the eye what's wrong with the car.

"I gather everyone is trying their best, there's a great sense of urgency in the team. It's not that they don't recognise the problem, everybody does.

"A blind person could see the problem. I know they're working hard to fix it."

Assessing his son's performance year-to-date, Lawrence Stroll casts a positive view, underling Lance's 100 percent finishing record and the 19-year-old's consistently gritty opening laps.

"I think his performance, based on the car he has, has been phenomenal," said the Canadian billionaire.

"This was his fifth great race. He can't qualify the car much better than where he qualifies it, but he does amazingly well on that opening lap.

"I think he's beaten his teammate all five times, and beaten a lot of people that the car is not capable of beating. So from a performance point of view with Lance, we couldn't be happier," he added.

"Obviously we'd like a better car to be at the front of the grid! But with the equipment he has, I don't think he could be doing a better job."

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