Force India boss on Stroll: 'We're dealing with a great driver'

Force India team boss Otmar Szafnauer believes Lance Stroll will prove to be a great asset to the team in the future.

Stroll's move from Williams to the outfit in which his father Lawrence Stroll has heavily invested has yet to be confirmed, but the Canadian will be lining up on the grid in Melbourne next year at the wheel of a Force India.

Many have debated the merits of the 20-year-old since he gained access to F1 with Williams at the start of the 2017 season.

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However, Stroll's performance relative to his successive team mates at the Grove-based squad - Felipe Massa and Sergey Sirotkin - have provided Force India with a good indication of his potential.

"I don't know him well yet, but from the outside I've seen him do a good job," the American team manager told Brazil's Globo.

"Next to Felipe Massa he finished three points behind last year and Felipe was world champion for half a lap in 2018.

"And when Sergey Sirotkin went to Williams this year, everyone told me he is very fast in qualifying, but Lance is beating him. All that suggests we are dealing with a great driver."

Indeed, in the past Stroll has shown clear flashes of outstanding ability - as his opening laps have often demonstrated - and proper race craft.

However, as a young talent he's still a work in progress, and it will be Force India's task to hone those skills and develop his maturity.

"He's still very young but we will help him to develop," says Szafnauer.

"And if there is something we know how to do, it's how to train young drivers like Nico Hulkenberg, Paul di Resta, Jules Bianchi and others.

"We can extract the potential out of young drivers and with Lance it will be no different."

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