Lowe: Stroll came into F1 too early

Asked by Racer to review his drivers in a year when, under Lowe, the team produced the FW41, the worst car produced by the Grove outfit. Tenth and last place in the 2018 F1 world championship was the worst finish in the once mighty team's illustrious history.

Asked by Racer to sum up the 20-year-old driver's season, Lowe said, “With Lance, his second year in Formula 1, my personal view is that in hindsight he came into Formula 1 too early. There are a number of reasons for that, but I think he would have been better to come a year later when he was better prepared."

Helped by father Lawrence Stroll's billions, Stroll junior was fast-tracked into Formula 1 after a notable junior career in which he was champion in everything he raced, including Formula 3.

Despite what Lowe says, it should be noted Stroll had an impressive rookie season with Williams a year earlier, the youngster finishing on the podium in Baku and generally showed strongly in races of high attrition and was also impressive in the wet considering his lack of experience.

But with an "evil" car handed to him this year, the Canadian struggled as one might be expected to when only used to the best of the best and then is handed a huge dollop of the worst.

Lowe continued, “It was a really, really tough year for him last year but we have seen him make a real step change over the winter. He’s been much stronger this year, particularly in his qualifying which was a difficult part for him last year."

"But he’s completely transformed his approach to qualifying this year and that’s played out well for him. And then becoming more confident as a driver, therefore getting some better results from that.”

Rookie Sergey Sirotkin in the sister car arrived in Formula 1 through the more traditional route, which Lowe believes served him well, "In Sergey’s case, a rookie but a rookie who was ready for Formula 1. Very, very committed. Trained and worked incredibly hard and a really great team player. Always the team and what the team needed uppermost in his mind."

“He’s been a really important component of what we’ve been doing this year through what were very difficult times. He’s always been very practical and level-headed about everything, even at the worst moments, and that goes a long way in a team that’s struggling," explained Lowe of the Russian 22-year-old.

Obviously, Sirotkin did not impress enough because he was ditched for Formula 2 champion George Russell while Stroll - who is Racing Point bound - will be replaced by comeback hero Robert Kubica.

In 2017 Williams announced that the 18-year-old (at the time) would join Valtteri Bottas in the team, but then the Finn left to replace retired Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg which gave Felipe Massa an extra year in the top tier as the teenager's teammate.

Despite questions from all and sundry about his state of readiness to step up to the top flight, Stroll showed that year that he had the right stuff, but 2018 he also showed that trials and tribulations were new to him and, hence, too often his rookie teammate outshone him.

His demeanour and body language also revealed a kid not happy with his plight and not quite sure to keep a lid on his frustrations and disappointments. A classic tale of "Why me?"

But big money saves the day, as Force India was saved by Stroll's senior's Racing Point consortium with the intent of building a racing team around his son who may use the opportunity to redeem himself and prove the naysayers wrong.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2016/11/05/villeneuve-stroll-has-not-learned-to-suffer-yet/