'I don’t doubt my ability’ - Stroll

Lance Stroll insists his confidence has not taken a hit as a result of his difficult start to life in Formula 1 with Williams.

The 18-year-old has yet to score a point in his opening six F1 races since graduating straight from European F3, having taken a dominant championship victory in 2016. While teammate Felipe Massa has secured two top-six finishes already this season, Stroll says his past performances give him total belief in his own potential heading to his home race in Montreal.

Related Stories

"I don't want to sound cocky but I don't doubt my ability as a racing driver and I have proven that to myself in the past in my career in F4 and F3," Stroll said. "I still don't doubt myself even if it has been a tricky start to the year. That doesn't change.

"What I do know and what I do have to accept is that F1 is very different from any other championship. The tires are very tricky to understand, we can see that this year with the compounds, it is a lot hard to get them into a working window. That for me is tricky.

"The cars this year are heavy, snappy and move around a lot which is fun but challenging. I enjoy it but it is a challenge and you see it with a lot of drivers. Also the tracks, a lot of them I don't know, so that is all part of the rookie year where you need to go to places you don't know and that is obviously not the same advantage as tracks you know.

"I think I'm improving race by race and getting more comfortable in F1 but to be the best I can be I need time and experience in this Formula. You can't rush that as you need to build up that knowledge and understanding."

And Stroll thinks part of the gap between himself and Massa is due to the difficulty of being a rookie in 2017 following the introduction of new regulations.

"It is definitely tricky. You could argue it is not a good year to come in but I can't focus on those details I need to accept the situation and work with it. It is not easy as a rookie but you have to be a rookie at some point. I've got time ahead of me so I have to stay focused, keep working hard and I strongly believe the tables with turn and things will start working out.

"They have been, there are bits and pieces. There has been a lot of bad luck and a couple of mistakes on my side which has overshadowed some of the positives. But there has been some positives. I think some of the qualifying sessions like in China getting into Q3 and a strong result being on in Bahrain. Russia wasn't great but still P11 so we've had some good races even if we didn't finish them.

"We were looking good for points but they are being overshadowed by some bad points that have happened. That is normal and I am focused on the positives that they are there and it is possible, it is about everything falling into place."