Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin have hit back at Felipe Massa's recent comments that Williams' poor form was due to the Grove-based outfit putting money at the forefront of its priorities.
Williams has gone for the least experienced line-up of its history this year, with Stroll and rookie Sergey Sirotkin.
Massa believes the choice is having a direct impact on the team's depressed results so far this season, but the 19-year-old Canadian insists his former team mate is wrong.
"I don't understand what he's trying to say," responded Stroll.
"Well first off, Felipe is not here, he's gone, he's retired.
"And, yeah, last time I checked I finished one position behind Felipe. And not really using Felipe as a reference, but using myself as a reference.
"I look at where I was at stages last year when the car could do it, in China I was in Q3, in other races I was, many races I was scoring points. So it's not like I know I can't do it, or that it's not possible.
"It's purely at the moment the problem is that with a really competitive and good race, we are P14, P13. And last year we were comfortably in the points many times. So that's how I look at it."
Russian rookie Sirotkin says he isn't fixated on what others outside the team say or believe, but he did admit the Brazilian driver's comments are ill-informed.
"I don't pay much attention to comments, but obviously it's not very pleasant," he said.
"Everybody's asking about a lack of experience, about bad feedback and so on, but during my career I've realised that the number of seasons you've raced doesn't directly make your feedback better and make you understand the car better. It doesn't mean that at all.
"Because I've seen all kinds of examples."
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The 22-year-old is obviously still on a steep learning curve, but contends that what matters is a drivers' faculty to quickly adapt.
"In terms of the way we are working, in terms of the way I'm providing the team with the feedback, I don't think there is really more I could do.
"It doesn't matter what experience you have, all that matters is how quickly and how concrete you are with the feedback you are giving back to the engineers."
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