Racing Point technical director Andrew Green believes Lance Stroll’s run of poor results is due to him taking “quite a battering physically and mentally” in recent races.
Stroll sat fourth in the drivers’ standings after eight rounds off the back of seven straight points finishes, along with a podium at Monza.
But since claiming the second top-three finish of his Formula 1 career, Stroll has failed to score in any of the proceeding races.
The Canadian crashed out of fourth place at Mugello after suffering a tyre failure at high speed, and collided with Charles Leclerc on the opening lap in Russia.
Stroll sat out of the Eifel Grand Prix due to illness, later testing positive for COVID-19, returning in Portugal where he made contact with Lando Norris before retiring.
His bad run continued at Imola, sustaining front wing damage on the first lap as he finished outside the points in 13th.
Having now slipped to 11th in the championship, Green believes the sequence of events has knocked Stroll’s confidence.
“Obviously he’s not where he was, for sure, from where he was at Monza to where he is now,” Green said, as quoted by Motorsport Week.
“There’s a lack of confidence for sure, which we’ll have to work on over the next week or so trying to get him back again.
“I think the illness did knock it out of him, for sure, that’s something that we hadn’t really foreseen.
“We’d heard about the length of time it can take to recover from the illness and I think it is taking some time, he just needs to get his confidence back again, believe in himself again, and we’ll get the Lance back that we had for the first two-thirds of the season.
“He’s obviously taken quite a battering physically and mentally. It was quite a big accident in Mugello, so I think that probably dented his confidence, and then not being fit for a couple of races.”
Racing Point is embroiled in a fight with midfield rivals McLaren and Renault for third in the constructors’ championship, with just one point separating the three teams.
Green reckons the pressure to deliver results to aid Racing Point’s points tally amid the closely-fought battle has also weighed heavily on Stroll.
“It is really, really fine margins here and if you’re not on top of the car, and understanding where the tyres are, and getting them in the sweet spot, you can be made to look like an idiot,” Green said.
“We just need to get him back onto track, we can do that, we’ve got the tools, we’ve got the people.
“Half of it is he probably that he just needs an arm around him, a bit of a hug, and say ‘come on let’s pull yourself together now and get on with this over the last few races’, and try and get back to third in the championship.
“He’s more than capable of doing it, it’s just a bit tough on him at the moment.”
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