Lowe sees Massa as 'fantastic coach' for Stroll

Williams tech boss Paddy Lowe reckons that rookie Lance Stroll could not hope for a better coach than team mate Felipe Massa.

Stroll has endured a difficult start to his maiden F1 season, but acquitted himself reasonably well in Russia last weekend, ending his day of racing just outside the points in 11th place.

The 18-year-old Canadian is gaining experience with each outing and profiting from the wealth of knowledge associated with Massa's 14 seasons of racing at the top.

"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."

• Massa draws upon memories of Schumacher to help Stroll

Lowe says that Stroll's first three races, and successive retirements, were particularly difficult for the young hopeful who knew that there were expectations.

"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," Lowe said.

"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 that people don't push you around.

"I think Lance is in that process at the moment."

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