Stroll can be ’great’ for Force India - boss

Otmar Szafnauer thinks Lance Stroll will be a "great driver" for Force India.

The news has not been announced yet, but it is an open secret that the son of new team owner Lawrence Stroll will be Sergio Perez’s teammate from 2019.

"I don’t know him well yet, but from the outside I’ve seen him do a good job," team boss Szafnauer, referring to 19-year-old Stroll, 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," he said.

"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.

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

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