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Williams back Stroll amid current struggles

Published on 18 May 2017 14:10
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By: Fergal Walsh

Team principal of Williams Claire Williams has backed her driver Lance Stroll to overcome his current problems and prove his critics wrong by impressing and showing he deserves a seat in Formula 1. The 18-year-old has so far struggled to get up to speed in the new generation F1 cars.

The Canadian dominated the European Formula 3 series last season and got the Williams promotion when Felipe Massa retired (although Massa would return after Bottas' move to Mercedes). However, Stroll has been heavily outperformed by his teammate who is double his age.

"I think it's really hard to make that step up from any junior formula," Williams said to Sky F1. "People can really underestimate that, and the pressure that these guys put themselves under.

"He needs a bit of space, a bit of head room, just to be able to go out and do what I think we all know he's fully capable of doing. Once he has that pressure eased off him a bit I think he'll go great guns."

Williams also said that having Massa as a teammate will greatly benefit Stroll who will be able to learn lots from the former Ferrari driver.: "As you can imagine, Felipe is a great team-mate for someone like Lance whose just starting his career," she added.

"He's got all that experience under his belt and I think he's relishing that opportunity. For Lance, it's just taking things easy. He's a young 18-year-old who puts a lot of pressure on himself. He needs to step back and listen to all the experience that has around him in this team. We've been racing for 40 years, we know how to do this and we know how to nurture young talent."

Fergal Walsh

F1 News Valtteri Bottas Felipe Massa Lance Stroll Williams Ferrari Mercedes

Replies (7)

Vet5

Posts: 225
He really isn't making a great impression to be fair, he needs to start showing why he was moved up from F3 to F1 and to show he isn't a pay driver, even though that will always be a tag with him.
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- May 18 2017 - 16:26
HEINZ

Posts: 61
His father must have paid a huge amount of money since Williams is wasting a lot of points that are not being won by Stroll. They will loose 4th place for Force India despite having a better car. How stupid is that?
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- May 18 2017 - 17:11
mcbhargav

Posts: 1,332
Any team that is happy with a racer, who got 0 points ( and hardly finished a race) with a 4th/5th best car, in a span of 5 races needs help.
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- May 18 2017 - 19:10
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Well, he hasnt impressed so far, but then again he hasnt had much of an opportunity to impress, crashing out several times, with and without help. Give him this season and a bit of the rest, should he not improve, they could always boot him and call in a spare card.
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- May 18 2017 - 22:59
Patentprutser

Posts: 392
It is going to be a very expensive year for Williams, if it goes on like this.
Force India is already way ahead and Renault (the Hulk) and Toro Rosso are not sitting back either. If Haas can fix their brake issues, they will overtake Williams too.
I would not give Stroll to long so much credit, I don't think that daddy Stroll will come up with that much kind of money to compensate their loss...
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- May 19 2017 - 08:52
talktohenry

Posts: 362
Give the guy a break, he's only had a few races and had bad luck, ya all don't like him because he's loaded and same goes for the media.......
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- May 19 2017 - 10:52
- Zucht
  
  Posts: 939
  I agree, it's everybody's fault and Lance is exceptionally talented
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  May 19 2017 - 22:26