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Williams' Paddy Lowe has said that the team's newest recruit, Canadian youngster Lance Stroll, could not have wished for a better mentor than his experienced team-mate Felipe Massa.
Stroll began his debut season in F1 with three consecutive retirements before finally reaching the chequered flag in P11 in Russia. Lowe believes that Massa has been instrumental in helping him find his feet thus far, as he gains more experience and confidence with each passing race weekend.
Of the veteran Brazilian, Lowe said: "I've admired Felipe as a competitor for many years, particularly 2008 when I was with McLaren and Lewis and it was a really tough battle between the two of them and the two teams.
"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 or 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."
Lowe acknowledged that Stroll's baptism of fire has been tough for the rookie, but also that such a period is part of every driver's adjustment to F1, and that the 18-year-old is progressing through this: "It's very, very tough to DNF on your first three events, particularly when for him there's been a lot of pressure, a lot of attention, a lot of expectation.
"It's difficult. One of them was ours with the brake failure, completely ours, we hold our hands up to that. That's part of the learning curve of entering the sport. You enter as a rookie, you make your space. I think part of that there is asserting your presence on the track so that people don't push you around. I think Lance is in that process at the moment."
Mason Hawker
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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