Lance Stroll should have another year at least before making the jump to Formula 1, Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe believes.

The young Canadian has endured a tough start to his career on the grid with a number of incidents at the start of 2017 in addition to the constant labelling as a pay driver without much talent by some.

It is often forgotten, however, that Stroll made the move after a pretty dominant European F3 season in 2016, even so, Lowe does think the 20-year-old should have considered F2 first.

“With Lance, his second year in F1, my personal view is that in hindsight he came into F1 too early,” he told RACER.

“There are a number of reasons for that, but I think he would have been better to come a year later when he was better prepared."

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His honest assessment comes as Stroll departs Williams for the renamed Racing Point F1 team in 2019, which was bought by his father Lawrence this past summer.

Though that has only increased the disdain many have for him, particularly taking the seat of Esteban Ocon, Lowe does concede Lance has made good progress.

“It was a really, really tough year for him last year but we have seen him make a real step change over the winter," he said.

“He’s been much stronger this year, particularly in his qualifying which was a difficult part for him last year. He completely transformed his approach to qualifying this year and that’s played out well for him.

“And then [he's] becoming more confident as a driver, therefore getting some better results from that.”