'It's all just noise': How Lance Stroll became the youngest F1 rookie to finish on the podium

Amid the chaos of the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the furious, continuing fallout of its many skirmishes, Lance Stroll was a model of composure.

By finishing third, the 18-year-old became the youngest to stand on the podium in his rookie year, and the second youngest podium-finisher behind Max Verstappen. Stroll is also only the third Canadian to finish in the top-three since Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve.

Stroll's second-consecutive points-finish has capped off something of a coup for the driver, whose baptism of fire is rapidly cooling. Of the first six races, he had only finished two with a highest finish of 11th, including four retirements, though the collision in Bahrain was Sainz's error and brake issues stopped him finishing in Monaco.

Criticism came thick and fast, then, for the son of a billionaire who was willingly thrust into F1 from a victorious 2016 F3 season. His steering-wheel twitches were scrutinised intensely with every tenth-second lost per lap to veteran team-mate Felipe Massa tallied and documented.

But Stroll stayed resolute, out-qualifying Massa for the first time this season in Azerbaijan and then taking his chance as drivers around him watched their own races unfold and unfurl. It was when Felipe Massa snuck through to third on the lap 20 Safety Car restart that the Force India duo imploded and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari collected the resulting shrapnel, that Stroll jumped from seventh to fourth.

Then, after Sebastian Vettel was pulled into the pits with a 10-second penalty for "potentially dangerous" driving as he previously bumped wheels with Lewis Hamilton in frustration, and Hamilton himself had to pit with a loose neck support on lap 32, Stroll found himself in second, only to be jumped by Valtteri Bottas on the final-straight as DRS put the Finn 0.105 seconds ahead of Stroll.

The results may have changed drastically but Stroll maintains his mentality and approach to race weekends haven't changed at all.

"I don't think I proved a point", he said after the race in reply to a question about his critics.

"The rest is all just noise in the background and I don’t really care for it. I don’t listen to [the criticism].

"It’s just noise, you know.

"It was there last year when I had a perfect year so this year when I had some tough times, it’s probably still going to be there.

"And the shooey at the end, that killed it. It's still sitting in my gums…Kidding aside, I’m so happy for myself, for the team, for everyone. A day to remember."

Mentoring from Massa

Chief Technical Officer at Williams, Paddy Lowe, said after the race, "Who would have expected that podium at the beginning of today?

"He’s had a brilliant weekend. He’s been faultless in every session, he’s stayed out of trouble, didn’t have any incidents and that carried into the race. He kept it clean, had good pace and managed the car and the tyres well.

"But, Felipe had an internal suspension failure that emerged just after, which I’m very upset about. Without that issue we really believe that Felipe could have won the race today and we could even have had a double podium.

"Felipe’s had a fantastic season so far and he’s been a great support to Lance, so it’s a shame that he can’t celebrate with us today. But, we’ll build on this and come back stronger next time."

Massa has been, as much as a racer, a mentor to Stroll and the outfit has ensured that its new driver acclimatises to this unforgiving F1 season as efficiently as possible.

Testing in Texas

Lowe revealed after qualifying at Baku that a test day at Austin on June 14 allowed Stroll to work on his set-up problems.

"He went to Austin last week driving the 2014 car," explained Lowe on Saturday.

"They did a few experiments with set-up, looking at some of the differences between his set-up and Felipe's set-up, and some of that's been brought forward here and I think it's put him in a much better place.

According to Autosport, the testing programme is to continue throughout the season to increase the amount of track-time that Stroll receives. Furthermore, the "generic" set-ups on the 2014 car can, says Lowe, "apply equally on a 2014 car as on a 2017 car."

Stroll said after the race that his set-up has, in fact, improved measurably since the Spanish GP.

"We kinda shifted away from that [previous] set-up after Bahrain. We started in Barcelona taking a different direction with the car and we came back to it this weekend.

"I’m much more competitive, similar to the beginning of the season, China, Bahrain when I was in Q3 and P11 in qualifying - much more competitive. And this weekend we came back to that set-up and it gave me a lot more confidence with the car.

"I feel like I’m able to really drive the car now and push the car, and it gives me a lot of confidence and comfort and I think that’s a big reason why I’m much more competitive this weekend.

"But also, there’s so many other things in the background. I’ve really improved my driving style, adapting to Formula One and I need to keep working on little things moving forward.

"It’s not finished yet – I still can improve a lot. It just takes a bit of time. I think sometimes people don’t realise that. This year is a very different formula for me and I just need to experiment it and try different things and come back and figure this and that out. I think that’s a big part of the reason why sometimes it’s tricky."

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