Despite Williams' woes, Stroll 'more on top of the car'

Limited by Williams' depressed performance this season, Lance Stroll is having a disappointing second year in Formula 1, but the Canadian feels his experience is helping his cause.

The Grove-based outfit's 2018 FW41 has proved problematic, its aerodynamic inefficiency forcing its drivers to linger at the tail end of the grid.

Stroll still succeeded in scoring a top-ten finish in Baku earlier this year, Williams' only points, and he continues to bite the bullet as the team works tirelessly to improve its performance.

The 19-year-old admits however that despite the slump, his experience has brought him a better understanding of the job and challenges at hand, which in turn had led his personal development.

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"I just feel like generally I am a lot more on top of the car," he said.

"I have a lot more of an idea on how to extract as much as possible out of it, especially also my working relationship with the engineers and what I’m looking for, what I’m trying to find from the car.

"That wasn’t really there for me last year, because I felt like I was always one step behind during the weekend," he added.

"I often got surprised on what I would feel when I was in the car, but now I’ve experienced every circuit, mostly every circuit, I’ve got a bit of a better picture of what’s going to happen.

"I feel more on top of things, and that leads to a lot of improved areas."

The young Canadian reckons he has improved overall, addressing a few of the deficits that transpired last year. But he also believe she is still a work in progress.

"I’ve built on some of my strengths, I’ve improved on some of my weaknesses, and there’s still definitely plenty more to come," explains Stroll.

"I’m still 19 and I still believe that I can definitely get a lot more out of myself with more seat time.

"I’m happy still that when there was one weekend in Azerbaijan when the car was somewhat competitive, we were just on the edge of Q3. For some reason it just kind of clicked that weekend.

"We were able to grab some points, and bring home a result. It gives a bit of hope.

"At least for myself, I know that when there was that opportunity, and we were around the top 10 in the fight, in the mix, we were able to steal that points. That can happen again this year."

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