The arrival of
Lance Stroll at the Williams Martini team produced a variety of comment with
a focus been on the fact that he only reason that he got the driver was due
to the significant financial contribution to the Williams team by his
father. But with the Williams team on their summer break we can now look
back at the season so far for Lance Stroll.
Despite been
probably the best prepared rookie coming into Formula one having spent a
considerable part of 2016 testing in an older version of the Williams the
opening series of races would turn out to be a frustrating time with poor
qualifying results as well as accidents ending in retirements. This learning
process was made even more difficult by the fact that the 2017 Williams was
even a difficult car to produce results in for his far more experienced
team-mate Felipe Massa.
But for the
young Canadian his season would start to come together with his first points
scoring result coming in his home race in Canada, courtesy of a ninth place
finish. This results was backed up by a podium finish in Azerbaijan with a
third place finish. That weekend saw both Williams drivers have a car that
was very competitive allowing both drivers to produce a very competitive
weekend despite the retirement of Felipe Massa. Also was the fact that 2017
saw such major changes to the cars themselves with changes to the
aerodynamics and tyres making the learning process for lance even that much
harder.
Lance would add
another point to his results in Austria, seeing him currently twelfth in the
championship, one spot and five points behind team-mate Felipe Massa. His
performances in the most recent races have help silence those who were of
the opinion that he only got into Formula One due to his fathers money. But
criticism has continued also in light of the performances of another 2017
rookie Ocon who has achieved far better results but in what must be admitted
to be a far better car than the Williams FW40.
As for the
comments regarding his fathers money Lance does not deny that he has been
lucky to come from his background but at the same time he would like people
to remember that he has worked through several championships to get to where
he is today. His results including winning the European F3 championship show
that he has the talent to succeed.
In an interview
for ESPN Lance spoke of this by saying "I know why I'm here. I can't deny
the reality, the reality is I had a great opportunity growing up as a kid
that not a lot of people have. I was very fortunate to come from where I
come from and be able to make that move from Canada to Europe to pursue my
dreams.
"But I grabbed
it with both hands and I won my championships to get here, I won my Formula
4 championship, I won my Formula 3 championship, I did all that and I got my
super licence points which not everyone can get. You have to go out and
deliver the results to get that and get into Formula 1.
"So that's where
my focus is at, I'm very thankful for the opportunity I've been given
growing up as a kid, but at the same time I worked really hard to get here.
I could easily be running around in last place with all the money in the
world. But that's not how I did it, and that's what matters to me.
"Also in Formula
One you need, other than if you're in the top three teams, you need some
backing to help you, even in the lower ranks, motorsport is incredibly
expensive. I have sponsors as well who have backed me other than my father,
so there's more to the story than just my father's money."
As for the
continued comments regarding his fathers money Lance spoke of how he deals
with it. Lance added: "You just turn it off, but at the same time you have
to look at the facts. I'm not here to prove anyone wrong, I'm here to do it
for myself and my team.
"I'm not here to
'show the critics', or whatever it is, I know why I'm here and that I
deserve to be here. I won Formula 3 championship and was the youngest ever
to win it, and by a massive margin, and a lot of work went into it.
"And now,
youngest rookie to ever be on the podium, that's an accomplishment and I
think for people to take that away from me and say 'it's just money', it's
not true. Showing those results, looking at the points, I'm still in the
[midfield] mix. There will still be hard weekends, good weekends, that's how
it works, but I've proven I belong to be here in F1. The results speak for
themselves."
As for his
results in 2017 Lance is the first to admit that he still has a lot to
learnt adding: “I think there’s always things to work on, especially where I
am now, being my first season.”
“The learning
never stops, every time I get in the car there’s something to work on, but
I’m pretty happy with the way it’s been going lately.
“We had our tough moments, which was expected in a first season, you have to
expect adversity, you’ve got to get over it.
“We had some great moments, scoring points, the podium in Baku was great, we
scored a good amount of points the first part of the season.
“So far, so good, but there’s still a long way to go and we have to take it
race-by-race and take it one point at a time.”
If you had to
sum up his 2017 season so far the comments would be a positive start to the
2017 season with a fantastic third place podium but Lance still has a lot to
learn and has to be patient as he continues his rookie year in Formula One.
There has been quite a few times when on the radio to his engineer that
there seems to be a feeling of frustration that he can't get the car to work
as he wants it. This will come with time but it must be said that he
certainly has put himself in a position where he should be able to say that
he has justified his place in the Williams team even with his fathers money.
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