Stroll still learning despite "annoying" DNF streak

After suffering a brake failure in Australia, Stroll has been the victim of early collisions with Sergio Perez in China and Carlos Sainz in Bahrain, the latter earning the Toro Rosso driver a grid penalty.

As a consequence, Stroll has done less racing laps in 2017 so far than any other driver.

“It’s particularly annoying for him, but I guess that’s welcome to F1!” Lowe told Motorsport.com. “He’s making steady progress, but it’s a big challenge.

"What’s clear is that there’s an awful lot to learn in this sport, particularly around tyres. He’ll have learned a lot from this weekend, and he’ll come back stronger next time.”

After a frustrating race in China, Lowe was encouraged by Felipe Massa’s strong race performance in Bahrain, where the Brazilian finished sixth.

“I think Felipe drove a great race," Lowe added. "He’s a driver of such huge experience, you know he’ll get the job done.

"The pace of the car was pretty good. He was fourth at one point! We knew it wouldn’t last to be honest, and although he defended very well at moments there, it wasn’t sustainable.”

Despite the good performance in the warm conditions of Bahrain, Lowe admits that Williams still has to learn from its bad experience in China, when Massa struggled for pace.

“It’s a completely different situation," he continued. "That was to do with cold, damp conditions, which is not what we had in Bahrain.”

Lowe believes the Grove-based team has to wait for similar weather before it can guarantee that it has got on top of its Shanghai problems: “The car was just not quick enough in those conditions.

"I think we’ve got some good theories on all of that and how to improve it in the future. You can work on those theories and then you wait for similar conditions to test them out, which obviously we don’t experience in Bahrain.”