Stroll plays down lead Williams role for collective focus

Lance Stroll has shrugged off a lead driver tag at Williams despite being joined by rookie Formula 1 driver Sergey Sirotkin for the 2018 season and feels his situation hasn’t changed ahead of his second season in the sport.

The Canadian teenager is part of the second-least experienced F1 driver squad on the 2018 grid, with Stroll bringing all the 21 F1 race starts to Williams only ahead of the Toro Rosso duo of Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley on a combined nine starts, which has been considered a potential weakness in the British squad’s prospects for the new season.

Stroll says his situation remains unaltered at Williams despite Sirotkin replacing the experienced Felipe Massa and the team’s goals remain the same from last year as it looks to improve upon its fifth place finish in the F1 world constructors’ championship.

“My job remains the same, regardless of who is on the other side of the garage,” Stroll said. “I have a group of people I work with and we want to get the most out of our package. That’s the objective for this year just like it was for last year.

“Our meetings are the same, everything’s the same. Of course we don’t have the most experienced line-up but there are some good people around us. There is a lot of experience around the engineering table in order to help us, so I believe we have a good team in place going into the season.”

Williams is also leaning upon Robert Kubica’s previous F1 experience as its third and reserve driver, with the former F1 race winner sharing testing duties with Stroll and Sirotkin this week, and the 19-year-old is keen to continue the team’s collective mentality ahead of the new season.

“Lead the team is maybe the wrong word,” he said. “I have a year under my belt compared to Sergey but at the same time we’re all in it together. There’s not a lead driver and a second driver, it’s one team and we want to get the most out of the package that’s available.”