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Stroll explains decision to ditch Ferrari for Williams

New Williams development driver Lance Stroll says he opted to leave Ferrari because its junior programme was "basic".

17-year-old Stroll was signed by Williams last year as a development driver, which will see him spending time in the team's simulator alongside his F3 commitments this season. Having left the Ferrari Driver Academy to join Williams, Stroll says he will learn a lot more about Formula 1 at Grove.

“It’s a different world," Stroll told Motorsport.com. "I was in the Ferrari junior programme, which was more basic – a training programme, a lot of gym work and mental work.

"Williams does that as well, but at the same time I get a lot more time to be closer to the Formula 1 team: more simulator time, more involved at the Grands Prix themselves with the engineers.

“I feel like we can be closer right now with Williams, and I’m working with them rather than just being part of a training camp like at Ferrari. For the future, it’s the right move.”

And Stroll also feels Ferrari is unlikely to promote a rookie driver into one of its race seats, while Williams has a proven track record with the likes of Valtteri Bottas, Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button.

"Williams has a great history of believing in young drivers, they’ve given many rookie drivers a chance in Formula 1. That was important for us, because Ferrari has a different approach; they tend to take more veteran drivers to fight for the championship.

“Williams was more what we were looking for, at least in the near future, and they were very welcoming. We were speaking to them as early as July, and we had the feeling that we were at home with Williams.

“We had that also with Ferrari, but Williams offered me a good position as a development driver with time in the simulator. Hopefully I’ll get a couple of days in an older Formula 1 car this year as well, which is very exciting.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.