Racing Point's Stroll explains details behind his F1 qualifying woes

Stroll took until the German Grand Prix in July to end a 15-race streak of Q1 eliminations, a run that had started in the 2018 US Grand Prix while he was driving for Williams.

Last year, he was outqualified by his Racing Point team-mate Sergio Perez 18 times in 21 races.

Stroll claimed a variety of issues made qualifying difficult for him throughout the year.

"A lot of details," Stroll said of the reasons behind his qualifying issues.

"At the beginning of the year I struggled with my driver [seat] fit in the car, so I didn't fit very well. And that took a few races to resolve. It sounds ridiculous but that's a real thing.

"On top of that, it's been about understanding the mechanical balance, the aero balance, the differential settings, torque settings - to get the most out of the car.

"The weekends go by very quickly that once you get to qualifying if you're not dialled in with the car, it's so competitive now in the midfield that there's just no really room for error.

"There's just no margin to afford any mistakes, with set-up and driving.

"With experience, all that just gets tidied up and the understanding of where to move, how to drive a car and how to set up a car just becomes much more clear.

"And I think that that's what I've seen over the course of the year - that I've just narrowed it down to what I know works on my end and how I have to drive the car, and how I have to set up the car and look for performance in it.

"And that's really been the biggest shift in performance. It is all down to all that."

The Canadian driver admitted that, even after making a breakthrough in his qualifying performances, he felt he still was not doing a good enough job on Saturdays.

"I saw an improvement since the summer break, really," he said.

"I felt like I gained a lot of confidence in the car and that's always positive going forward.

"Then on the other side it [was] just frustrating in the second half of the season that we [didn't] convert some of those better qualifiers because I don't think we're quite where we want to be yet on Saturday.

"This sport can turn around very quickly. [If in] the last two races you have two good results and all of a sudden you find yourself reflecting on the year very differently.

"But yes, going into [2020] that's really the goal. It is to keep working on my Saturdays and unlock more from the car."