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Stroll: Williams drivers "easy targets" amidst team struggles

13:52, 20 Aug 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Williams' Lance Stroll thinks that drivers in the Formula One can make for "easy targets" for blame and criticism, as his team are currently struggling massively this season.

After finishing fifth last season, Williams have nose-dived in a spectacular way this season, only picking up four points in twelve races and thus manning the last place in the constructors' championship. All those points have come from Stroll in Azerbaijan, as the Canadian mustered a P8-finish in the Baku street circuit. Rookie Sergey Sirotkin is the only driver on the grid who has yet to score any points.

Stroll thinks the criticism both him and Sirotkin are receiving is unfair on them, as he thinks that both of them are simply easy targets for the media because of their young age and strong financial backing.

"All I can say is that we're having a tough year, but the people involved in the team know that," the teenager told Autosport.

"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.

"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."