Lance Stroll managed to get some much needed mileage under his belt this week in Barcelona as he completed 132 laps on the final day of pre-season testing in Barcelona onboard the Williams Martini Racing FW40.
The team managed to complete a total of 600 laps this week after their first week was cut short by off-track excursions by the young Canadian which resulted in damage to the car.
Chief Test & Support Engineer Rod Nelson explained what had been the focus of the last day testing before the Australian Grand Prix.
“It was a pretty good day.” said Nelson. “We did some chassis work and a qualifying simulation this morning. Unfortunately, Lance didn’t manage to get his time in on the ultrasofts, and so his fastest time of the day was set on the soft tyres. We tried to do full race simulations in the afternoon but were interrupted by several red flags.
“Overall, we have got a lot of good data from this week. We’ve completed 600 laps this week, with the team doing a very good job to make up for the time we lost last week. We can take a lot of positives from this as we prepare to head to Melbourne.”
Lance Stroll on track in Barcelona – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd.
Stroll was much happier with the outcome of this week despite not being able to put in a competitive time on the ultrasoft Pirelli tyres.
“It was a good day today to end a good week.” said the 18-year-old. “It was a fun day and I got to put the ultrasofts on and really feel the grip. It was awesome. I was on a mega lap on them but I went long into Turn 13, which cost me everything and I lost my lap. I was eight tenths up and it was looking good, but anyway it’s testing. I did some good running this afternoon with long runs so it’s all positive stuff.
“It was obviously a frustrating week last week with the couple of things that happened, but we had a good week this week. We got all our running in – long runs, short runs, and all compounds of tyres – so it was good.”
While Stroll is growing in confidence as he gets used to the new car he remains realistic for the next few weeks ahead, “I think we still have to stay calm ahead of Australia and just do our work and then see where we are. It’s a new track for me as I have never been there, but I’m going to take it step-by-step and run-by-run.”
