Williams Technical Director Paddy Lowe admits much of Lance Stroll’s race potential is being wasted by his ongoing problems extracting performance in qualifying.
The young Canadian, who stepped up as European F3 champion last year, has shown glimpses of his ability in his first season in Formula 1, keeping his nose clean in tricky races and impressing in wet conditions.
His most notable result remains his incredible third in Baku when he showed great composure under pressure from some of biggest names on the grid and was very unfortunate to lose second just on the finish line.
Consistency has begun to show in his results too, with four top eights in the last six races keeping him ahead of Williams teammate and soon-to-be-retired Felipe Massa in the Drivers’ standings.
Stroll has only out-qualified the Brazilian on three occasions, however, and because he is starting several places down on what the car is capable of, that means his strength on a Sunday can mean very little.
“He races very much better than he qualifies and I think people look at qualifying as a reflection of a drivers’ speed because it is just very clear and easy to work it out from that,” Lowe said on Thursday in Brazil.
“That doesn’t reflect on Lance as perhaps it should, as it is his weaker area. He races far better than he qualifies at the moment, but then you see glimpses of brilliance on that side with what he did in Monza, so I think he can unlock far better qualifying performances in due course.
“He is aware of that and it is something we are paying attention to.”
The former Mercedes boss admits much of the single-lap deficit can be put down to experience, with the preparation of tyres and brakes very important in an F1 car as is learning exactly where every tenth in lap-time can be found around the track.
“The trickiest thing which you will see in the numbers is getting going: that first/second run,” Lowe continued. “Once he gets going he tends to put in good laps.
“You need to remember he is only 19, so there is a lot of stuff to learn and get his head around and qualifying is in some ways a more difficult test than racing because it is so intense.”
