Stroll: 'I’m very far from reaching my full potential'

40

Lance Stroll says he is nowhere near reaching his full potential as a driver, insisting the knowledge and experience accumulated in 2018 will benefit him next season.

The Canadian's second year of Grand Prix racing was a challenging campaign due to Williams' poor performance, and one which saw the 20-year-olf often linger at the tail end of the field along with team mate Sergey Sirotkin.

Stroll's move to Racing Point for 2019 - the team partly-owned by his father Lawrence Stroll - should boost the young charger's prospects and allow him to continue to mature, and capitalize on what he learned in 2018.

'Stroll came into F1 too early', suggests Lowe

"I’ve learned so much with another season under my belt of Formula 1, time with the engineers, expanding my knowledge of Formula 1, the tyres, racing, qualifying," he said

"Just with seat time you learn so much and that’s far from done.

"I just turned 20 years old and I still believe I’m very far from reaching my full potential. Every year I try to keep chipping away at it.

"Over the winter this year I’m going to reflect and work on my weaknesses and build on my strengths."

Stroll enjoyed only two top-ten finishes this year, a track record that compares unfavorably with the seven points-scoring results and 40 championship points he delivered in 2017.

However, he insists his year - on a personal level - wasn't as negative as the results suggest on

"I don’t think it’s really fair to compare the two [or] judge the year in general," he added. "It’s been a fire-fighting season.

"We picked up very few points but the few times that I picked up points were big highlights because we beat quicker cars around us.

"Same thing in qualifying: I scraped into Q2, got into Q3 in Monza, they’ve really been big achievements because it’s the performance that has been really poor.

"All in all I do believe I’m a more complete driver today than I was a year ago. But I think that I just haven’t been able to demonstrate that due to the package.

"Which is the nature of the sport, that’s how it goes some years and you have to accept that as a driver."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.