“I learn every time I step into a race car. I pick up little things here and there and that’s what makes me a better driver every day.”Lance Stroll, Canadian Formula 1 Driver for Williams Martini Racing
Ninteen year-old Lance Stroll, from Montreal, Quebec, is about to embark on his second season at the pinnacle of motorsports, Formula 1. His new teammate at Williams Martini Racing for the 2018 season will be twenty-two year-old Russian driver, Sergey Sirotkin. In his debut F1 season, Stroll broke two records by becoming the youngest rookie podium finisher with a third-place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and the youngest front-row starter with a second-place start in the Italian Grand Prix.
We caught up with Stroll at the ‘World Center of Racing’, the Daytona International Speedway, prior to the start of the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Stroll made his Rolex 24 debut in 2016, at the tender age of seventeen, with Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, and finished fifth overall.
TrackWorthy: How are you doing? You’re looking tanned and relaxed.
TrackWorthy: The first time you were here, getting out on the high bank, at night, how hard was that to adapt to?
TrackWorthy: How has the car performed during practice and qualifying?
TrackWorthy: As a kid growing up, was your ultimate dream to be racing in Formula 1? Did you also dream of competing in something like the 24 Hours of Daytona?
TrackWorthy: Does racing a car, whether it’s a prototype like this or a Formula 1 car, keep your racing skills honed?
TrackWorthy: What would it be like getting out of your Daytona Prototype car and getting into your Formula 1 car?
TrackWorthy: You’ve driven your Formula 1 car and know it well enough that you are on top of your car?
TrackWorthy: When you get into the prototype car are you running it at ten-tenths? Do you feel you are at the limit?
Stroll: Yes, I do. I did a pretty good lap today. It’s a car that has a lot of differences than Formula 1 but I feel pretty on top of the car.
TrackWorthy: When you were a little kid did you have a dream car?
TrackWorthy: What was your first car?
Stroll and his co-drivers Felix Rosenqvist (Sweden), Daniel Juncadella (Spain), and Robin Frijns (Netherlands) drove their Jackie Chan DCR JOTA ORECA LMP2 to a fifteenth place finish overall and placed 11th in their class. They completed 777 laps. The winning Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi prototype completed a record 808 laps.
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