The day Sir Frank confused Sirotkin with a mechanic!

Sergey Sirotkin's first days on the job at Williams included an amusing encounter with Sir Frank Williams at the team's Grove factory.

The Russian rookie, who will be racing alongside Lance Stroll this year, has spared no effort to build his relationship with the British outfit since he was recruited at the beginning of the year.

The 22-year-old lives in a small flat a stone's throw from Grove and has spent as much time as possible over the past two months imbedded with his Williams crew.

• Abu Dhabi test 'changed everything' for Sirotkin

Early on however, he thought useful to try his hand at wheel changing, for the sake of getting acquainted with the task from his crew's perspective. Sirotkin picks up the story from here.

"I was doing regular – two, three times a week – pitstop practice with mechanics," he told Motorsport.com.

"I'm on the wheel gun. One time we were practicing, I wasn't in uniform and Frank showed up, and I had my back turned to him.

"He watched it, and then said – this new mechanic, looks a bit raw, needs more time to train with the wheel gun. He was told later that it was me. So that was our first meeting this year!"

Thereafter, the rookie often saw the legendary team owner who, at 75, still doesn't miss a beat of the action that goes on at Grove or at the race track.

"I've seen him during weekends a couple of times," Sirotkin added.

"Once I turned up for training on Sunday morning, he asked what I was doing there. Told him I was there to train.

"Then I came in in the evening and saw him while waiting for the physio. "You again?"

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