While statistics can never paint a full picture of a driver’s performance, Williams’ tech chief Paddy Lowe says there is one number that proves Lance Stroll’s talent in racing.
The 19-year-old is the most experienced F1 driver in the British team for 2018 campaign. F1 rookie Sergey Sirotkin will join Stroll as his teammate for the upcoming season.
Williams is entering the season with the most inexperienced driver line-up on the grid. Lowe is certain Stroll will do much better this time after a good performance in his first year in the outfit.
Speaking with ESPN, Lowe said: “I think that Lance will approach his second season in a completely different place to his first,”
“He came in very young, 18 years old, a very new environment, new challenge, it’s a huge amount of information to manage and use in the intense environment of Formula One racing.
“So I think at his second season he’ll be so much better off and a year older, a year at that age is a really big step.
“I think we’ve got all the hope and the promise he can have a phenomenal second year and keep building a terrific career in Formula One.”
Stroll’s entry to F1 was often termed as ‘just another rich kid’ who owed his seat his father’s fortune. But he silenced the critics with a string of top 10 performances and a podium finish at Baku.
Lowe knows the young Canadian has talent and put out one impressive statistic about his 19-year-old driver.
“He knows all the tracks, he knows his way around, so he can be hugely more confident and build on the things he did last year, which were already some great successes, some very notable statistics,” adds the 55-year-old engineer.
“My favourite, the one less talked about, is his first-lap performance.
“I had that feeling all year, just objectively, that he was looking really strong in that aspect but I was pleased to see the formal calculation that he’d achieved the most overtakes in lap one confirmed that,” adds Lowe.
“It’s a terrific statistic, as we know there are many drivers who can get a great grid spot and then throw it away at the first corner in silly incidents.
“Lance has shown himself able to fight and yet not step over the line and throw it all away.”
