Lowe: Massa experience crucial to Stroll

Editor

Williams tech boss Paddy Lowe has hailed Felipe Massa as a "fantastic" mentor for Canadian rookie Lance Stroll.

In Russia, the 18-year-old finished the first race of his Formula 1 career after three previous DNFs and Lowe believes Stroll has the potential to come leaps-and-bounds under the tutelage of his vastly-experience team-mate.

"I've admired Felipe as a competitor for many years, particularly 2008 when I was with McLaren and Lewis [Hamilton] and it was a really tough battle between the two of them and the two teams," Lowe said.

"He did a fantastic job that year, and as you know, he was briefly world champion. So Felipe is a world champion-class driver, so it's great to work with him.

"His experience is just vast, and he's the kind of guy you watch in the car and you have no worries about what he'll do and whether he'll get it right, because you can have complete confidence that he'll deliver what you need from the car.

"That's fantastic to have, especially at the moment with Lance being on his steep learning curve. At the same time, Felipe's been very, very helpful with coaching across the garage to help Lance get up to speed."