Stroll: ‘Massa was never my mentor’

A defiant Lance Stroll has denied that veteran driver and Williams team-mate Felipe Massa mentored him throughout his rookie season in Formula 1.

At various stages of the 2017 campaign, Massa compared his relationship with Stroll to the one he had with Michael Schumacher in the early stages of his career at Ferrari.

But Stroll has now said there were not really any words of wisdom exchanged and it was just a normal partnership.

“I don’t think I had any guidance from him last year, whatsoever,” Stroll told Motorsport.com. “He was a teammate like any other.

“He was busy trying to drive as fast as he could, and I was trying to drive as fast as I could. That was it. There was nothing more to it than that."

“I don’t know why people seem to think there was a coach or a mentor thing going on. There wasn’t; it was just him doing his job and me doing mine, and whoever did it better finished ahead.

“Whether my teammate is someone with 15 years’ experience or someone of one year's experience, my approach doesn’t change.”

Stroll finished three points behind Massa in his debut campaign and 11th in the World Drivers' Championship.