Stroll 'Blind' Heading Into 2017 Rookie-Season

Williams' Lance Stroll has admitted that last season he was "kind of blind" heading into the season as the only out and out rookie on the grid, but also learned his lessons from his rookie season.

Stoffel Vandoorne had already been an injury replacement for Fernando Alonso in 2016, which meant that Stroll was the only pure rookie last season. Stroll had a rough start to his F1-career, retiring from the first three races. However, he picked up his first points in his home country of Canada, and later became the youngest ever driver to stand on the podium, which sparked a stronger second half of the season.

Heading into 2018, Stroll suddenly is the more experienced driver of the line-up, with the retired Felipe Massa being replaced by rookie Sergey Sirotkin. The Canadian has much more confidence heading into this season, despite that.

“Having that year of experience helps,” the Canadian said. “This year, I have a lot more clarity than I did coming into winter testing last year. I came in not really expecting anything and not really knowing what the car would be like, how it would handle, what everything would be like. I was kind of blind going into it last year."