Lance Stroll believes year-on-year continuity with Racing Point will assist his and the team’s prospects in Formula 1 next season.
Stroll joined Racing Point for 2019 in the wake of his father, Lawrence, acquiring the outfit mid-2018, following erstwhile owner Vijay Mallya’s financial difficulties.
Stroll peaked with a best of fourth in the rain-hit German Grand Prix but has scored just nine points across the other 19 grands prix, while trailing experienced team-mate Sergio Perez in both qualifying and race trim.
“For myself just coming back for a second season in the same environment with more experience, yeah, it’s a big benefit, that’s for sure,” said Stroll.
“[But] I can only tell you next year!
“But I do believe that if I can do every weekend over again this year I could do a lot better, if you know what I mean, just unlocking the full potential of the car in many ways is tricky in Formula 1, so yeah, I think experience will definitely help.”
Stroll reckons he made year-on-year strides at Williams but that lessons learned through 2017 were masked in 2018 by the team’s on-track regression.
“That’s the thing – it wasn’t a good comparison for us, the second year, we had a much stronger package in the first year compared to the second year,” he said.
“From the first to second year there was an improvement my end, it didn’t show on paper due to the package being poor in the second season.
“But I did feel like I was more on top of the car, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the car, how I could fully unlock it, and I feel this will be the same at this team, I do believe that.”
Stroll and Perez will form an unchanged partnership at Racing Point in 2020, with the Mexican signed on through 2022.
