F1 | Lance Stroll believes strong performance of RP20 helped him trust his abilities
Canadian youngster Lance Stroll believes good results of 2020 due to a strong car, answered questions on his own driving abilities.
Lance Stroll, 22 whose heading into his fourth F1 season with rebranded and his father owned “Aston Martin Congnizant Formula One Team” thinks the strong performing RP20 really helped him answer his own question.
In F1, most drivers who don’t have a good car to showcase their talent and abilities are most of the times reckoned as mediocre drivers, it’s evident from George Russell’s cameo for Mercedes at Bahrain how a strong car can bring the best out of driver and can make a driver who’s used to finishing dead last in races a contender for the race win.
Stroll who helped Racing Point finish a strong fourth in the constructor’s standings of 2020 was of the same thoughts and according to him, bad cars in previous years was making him questions his abilities and his talent and he wasn’t able to demonstrate his capabilities because the cars were handicapping him
“If you get a good car, you get good results, and then you just build confidence from there,” Stroll told Motorsport.com
“Sometimes when I was in a bad car, if anything, it kind of backfired on me.
“Especially in the beginning of your career, when you're in a bad car and you don't know what it's like to be in a good car until you sit in one, your kind of start to question what your ability is like, and if it is as good as the others that are in good cars, because you just don't know what a good car feels like.
In 2020 Racing Point by copying Mercedes' design made a significant step forward and was able to be ahead of Red Bull at some races. With 2 podiums and a pole position Stroll is of view that he has proved himself and the questions he was asking himself are now finally answered.
“I think this year, I proved a lot to myself. I proved a lot to really to mainly myself and I just answered a lot of questions to myself that I've been asking myself in the last few seasons up until I had the opportunity to sit in a car that really performs.”
Stroll who became the youngest pole sitter at 2020 Azerbaijan, had a lot of concerns about his talent and future in F1 with the likes of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen as before the buyout of the formerly know Force India and a year before at William Racing, those two seasons Stroll merely finished in top ten and spent most race lingering outside of the points
Stroll said his previous form left him asking himself “the simple kind of questions” about his ability.
It's not how many times you get knocked down that count. It's how many times you get back up.
— Lance Stroll (@lance_stroll) November 14, 2020
Big thanks to the whole team. What a day 👊 pic.twitter.com/SzbYy20OEh
“Am I capable of delivering results?” Stroll said. “To finish up at the front? Am I capable of qualifying up at the front? You just don't get those results.
“A lot of it also wasn't all down to results, it was just like, 'what does a competitive car feel like?' How much better is it?
“[I didn’t know] until I sat in last year's car and I realized how much of a difference there was, and how much I could also build on my driving being in a good car.
“That's one of the biggest advantages of being in a good car is what you can get out of yourself. It gives you so much more confidence driving the car. It allows you to attack the corners much harder and just push the car much harder.
“As drivers, that's what we want to be able to do. And sometimes when you're in a bad car, it takes away that confidence and that ability to push the car. That has a big impact on a driver.”
