Williams only team yet to score points in F1 2018; Stroll says "everything" needs improving on FW41
Tuesday 11 December 2018 15:24, UK
Lance Stroll was "shocked" by the step backwards Williams endured at the Bahrain GP and says "everything" needs work on their struggling FW41 car.
Williams are the only team yet to score a point in F1 2018 and Stroll started last in Bahrain, with team-mate Sergey Sirotkin 18th.
Matters failed to improve on race day either: they were the final two cars to cross the finish line and a lap down.
At the Chinese GP - where both Williams reached Q3 in 2017 - Stroll was slowest and Sirotkin in the bottom six in both Friday practice sessions.
"There are a lot of things to sort out - our straight-line speed, our handling. Everything needs work," Stroll said.
"In Bahrain, it was shocking how big of a step backwards we had made. I was four tenths slower than I was last year.
"We were losing time on the straights. We haven't improved. We improved a little bit in the corners, but not even close to the extent we were hoping for.
"But then in Australia, we improved the lap time a little bit compared to last year when Felipe [Massa] was in Q3.
"It's a bit up and down, but it's very early days. There are still 19 races to go, and there's a lot more to understand and to look at before we come to a conclusion."
Williams finished third in the Constructors' Championship in 2014 and 2015 but slipped to fifth in the last two seasons - triggering a fundamental change in the design philosophy of their car.
But Stroll feels Williams have so far made no improvement from their 2017 car and says the team are now losing out where they were previously strong.
"All in all, we haven't improved our package," he told Sky F1.
"We are giving up in areas that we were strong in last year and we haven't improved to the extent we wanted to in the areas we were aiming to improve in.
"Overall, it's not where we want to be. But we have identified a lot of problems and hopefully we have a good idea of how to improve the car and how to make big steps in the right direction."
Sirotkin believes the Bahrain GP weekend helped Williams identify a number of their problems and says the team are working flat out to find solutions.
"We have a few different issues in different areas that we have to work on. I wouldn't say that it's done and now we are brilliant but the weekend in Bahrain helped us point out those areas so now we start to think more about those things and how to solve them.
"I won't promise how soon or how big the step is going to be, but I can promise that every single guy in the team is putting maximum effort into maximising what we can do."
