Williams youngster Lance Stroll has claimed that former Formula 1 team-mate Felipe Massa offered no guidance during their sole season together in 2017.
Stroll, who graduated to Formula 1 as the reigning Formula 3 champion, was initially set to partner Valtteri Bottas at Williams, but the Finn secured a late switch to Williams, with Massa coming out of retirement to link up with the Canadian.
Many expected that Massa, a veteran of more than 260 Formula 1 starts, would act as a mentor to the then 18-year-old, and comments from Williams suggested this to be the case, but Stroll has offered a different view, commenting that the pair focused on themselves.
"I don't think I had any guidance from him last year, whatsoever," he told Autosport. "He was a team-mate like any other.
"He was busy trying to drive as fast as he could, and I was trying to drive as fast as I could. That was it. There was nothing more to it than that.
"I don't know why people seem to think there was a coach or a mentor thing going on."
Stroll will partner rookie Sergey Sirotkin this year to form F1's youngest driver pairing on the current grid, but insists that won't change his mentality.
"Whether my team-mate is someone with 15 years' experience or someone of one year's experience, my approach doesn't change."
Responding to the claims, Massa wrote on Twitter: "Better not to comment…"
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