Williams’ Lance Stroll has continued to insist that he is unphased by questions over him being a pay driver as the results that he has produced in 2017 “speak for themselves.”
Lance Stroll: The results “speak for themselves”
Stroll had a tough start to his F1 career this season, failing to finish a race until the Russian Grand Prix. It was not until Canada however, that he managed to bag his first points in F1 through a ninth place finish. An impressive drive in Azerbaijan saw the Canadian finish on the podium for the first time, making him F1’s youngest rookie to finish inside the top three. A tenth place finish in Austria brought more points for Stroll, meaning that he is only five points away from Felipe Massa in the Drivers’ Championship.
Despite a strong run of results recently and being able to take the fight to his more experienced team mate, Stroll’s status as a pay driver still persists, and the driver talked about this to ESPN: “You just turn it off, but at the same time you have to look at the facts. I’m not here to prove anyone wrong, I’m here to do it for myself and my team,” he said.
“I’m not here to ‘show the critics’, or whatever it is, I know why I’m here and that I deserve to be here. I won Formula 3 championship and was the youngest ever to win it, and by a massive margin, and a lot of work went into it,” he added. “And now, youngest rookie to ever be on the podium, that’s an accomplishment and I think for people to take that away from me and say ‘it’s just money’, it’s not true.
“Showing those results, looking at the points, I’m still in the [midfield] mix. There will still be hard weekends, good weekends, that’s how it works, but I’ve proven I belong to be here in F1.
“The results speak for themselves,” he concluded.
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