Stroll: Drivers are "easy to blame"

Williams are having a torrid time in F1 this season, scoring only four points. Lance Stroll has now hit back at people who have been claiming that their inexperienced driver line-up is part of the problem.

Canadian Stroll is the source of Williams’ points this season, courtesy of a eighth placed finish at the chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the scene of his maiden and only podium finish in F1 in 2017.

Stroll and his team mate Sergey Sirotkin make up the least experienced driver pairing on the grid, with only 44 race starts between them.

Russian Sirotkin has a best finish of 13th in a difficult first F1 season for him, but Stroll believes that the drivers are not to blame for Williams lack of points.

Stroll said in an interview with Autosport: “I’m not entirely sure what the public perception is.

“All I can say is that we’re having a tough year, but the people involved in the team know that.

“Last year I was capable of getting the car to the points consistently and on a regular basis and this year I have good starts and get further up the grid and just kind of drop back.”

Stroll scored points on seven occasions during his debut season in the sport, scoring 40 points and finishing 12th in the championship standings, only one place and three points behind his far more experienced team mate Felipe Massa.

This has led to Stroll denying that experience has affected their season.

“I don’t really think that experience is much to do with that.

“There are so many engineers and people in F1 who impact the car, I think the drivers are the easy ones to blame but if you had an experienced driver you’d find something else to blame.

“There’s always an easy target to blame, but we’re in the situation we’re in, we have to get out of it and that’s all I can really say.”