Williams rookie driver Lance Stroll believes that improving his own pace takes priority over clinching his first Formula 1 points.
The 18-year old has endured a miserable start to his rookie season, retiring from his first three races and then spinning out of a potenial first point in Russia.
Despite his extensive pre-season testing program with the teams 2014 car around some of the circuits around the world, his pace has been extensively behind that of his experienced team-mate Felipe Massa.
Stroll told Crash.net: “I do have my targets in terms of what I need to improve on. In terms of position, not really.
“Like I don’t look at Canada and say I need to finish in the points because that would be the wrong approach. I look at Canada and say what are my weaknesses then look to improve in those areas.
“Then hopefully points will come. That is the way I work, not by setting an objective on the final outcome but focus on the steps and tasks to get to that final outcome. That is the way I’ve worked my entire career.
“I had no expectations as I knew it was going to be very challenging and I didn’t put a target in my head like by race five I’ll be this good.”
In spite of growing criticism of the young Canadian from fans across social media, Stroll also states the team is happy with his progress, acknowledging their partnership is based on something much more long-term.
“I’m 18 years old and it is a challenging year in F1,” Stroll added.
“I think the team looks at it as a bigger project than just the next race. I think that is the only way to look at it. If we just focused on outcome and what we did I don’t think we’d maximise each task we’re trying to work on.
“We’ve got to look at the bigger picture. Of course, we go to Montreal to work as hard as we can and do the best we can, the same way we go everything, but I think if we always think we need to score points we start forgetting about the stuff we have to do to get there.
“I think the right way to work is by focusing on each task at hand and then move forward.”
