Lance Stroll believes the Williams Martini Racing squad would do well to retain their fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship in 2018, particularly if the expected stronger challenges from other teams materialise.
The Canadian will compete in his second campaign with the Grove-based outfit this year, and took a surprise podium in Azerbaijan in 2017, the only podium finish for anyone not driving for either Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari or Red Bull Racing last season.
Williams finished again behind the Sahara Force India F1 Team last year, but Stroll is expecting stronger 2018’s from at least the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team and from the McLaren F1 Team, and the
“I hope we can have a quicker car, we all want to be better, but it’s not going to come easy,” said Stroll to RACER. “The competition is strong. Force India is doing a good job, they were incredible last year – always in Q3, always scoring good points – and they just had a better car, so we need to try and catch them.
“But then at the same time Renault are not slow, when they had their good weekends they were very, very good, so we need to watch out for them, and then McLaren’s going to make a step in the right direction I believe.
“That being said at the end of the day we have to do our thing and that’s about trying to maximize the points we can score every weekend, getting the most out of the car and then we’ll see where we are at the end of the season. That’s the goal.
“I think last year we finished fifth – where we should have finished – and if we could stay there I think that would already be pretty good with all the other teams trying to make big steps in the right direction.”
