Stroll ‘extremely happy’ with debut season

Editor

Lance Stroll is delighted with his first season in Formula 1 after overcoming a "very tough" start to the campaign.

The Canadian did not get off to the best of starts after crashing in pre-season testing and having to wait until round four in Russia to complete his first Formula 1 race.

But Stroll was intent on not letting the early season struggles affect him.

"I had a tough time in winter testing, but that was kind of all expected," Stroll said. "It was pretty tough, not finishing the first three races.

"Regardless of whether it was my fault or mechanical failure or whatever. Just the fact I didn’t get to finish a Grand Prix.

"I knew I was going to face adversity at some stage in my first year. It hit me quite early in the year. But I tried to stay level headed and not let it get to me."

Stroll went on to score 40 World Championship points with 15 of them coming when he clinched a historic podium finish in Baku.

Looking back on the 2017 season as a whole, Stroll was thankful that the Williams team stuck by him and gave him the confidence to succeed.

"[They] always believed in me and I listened to them and we bounced back from that," he said. "That’s what matters: we did bounce back from that.

"We made it become a great season. I look back at the season overall and I’m extremely happy with how it went."

With the 2018 season on the horizon, Stroll feels a full year's experience will be a big bonus to him.

"Just coming back to the circuits every time for the second time will be a big advantage," he added.

"I’m going to work on my qualifying over the winter. A lot of that will help by coming back to a circuit for a second time.

"But I would say there’s areas to improve on everything. Just more experience, more knowledge, having time to reflect over the winter will be good."