Despite Aston Martin's mediocre start to its 2022 campaign, Lance Stroll remains excited about his team's F1 future as he follows its "shocking" buildup behind the scenes.
Aston Martin is the only F1 team which has yet to score a championship point in 2022, a shortfall due in large part to the lack of pace of its new-generation AMR22.
Although the Silverstone-based team's prospects look bleak in the short term, its ongoing build-up behind the scenes, supported by the construction of its new factory as well as by the team's recruitment drive, is filling Stroll with hope.
"We are really focused and excited on the future," he said during a media call on Thursday. "It's amazing what's going on back at Silverstone with the factories. It's going up so quickly.
"Every week that I go, it's shocking to see how much progress they're making and how quickly that building is coming up. And all the people joining the already very talented people on board.
"I think it's just an extremely exciting project that's in the process of growing, and I really look forward to that."
Aston Martin is in the second year of a five-year plan established by team owner Lawrence Stroll to develop his outfit into a championship contender by 2025.
While he was perhaps expecting to achieve better results at the outset this season, Stroll Jr never anticipated Aston racing in the upper tier of F1's midfield.
"We're in a phase of growing right now," explained the Canadian. "We're bringing people on board and very talented people have been on board. It's a process of growing: nothing happens overnight.
"It's really a process now of just developing, getting better understanding of what we can do better this season, but really looking forward to the next few years, and where this team is heading.
"It's really about the future for us. It's really exciting. And I'm just looking at that."
But Stroll reckons that much can be salvaged from the present by properly developing Aston's AMR22.
"I'm confident and positive that, as a team we can improve, and we can push this car further," he said.
"But in F1, as you develop, everyone else develops. So it is a development race to the end of the year.
"Will we be fighting for wins this season? No. Will we be fighting for podiums this season? Probably not.
"Will we get to a position where we can fight for points and stuff? I really hope so and I believe that it is possible if we do the right things, and if we push each other and come up with some ideas on how to resolve some of our limitations. But time will tell."
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