Otmar Szafnauer, team principal of Racing Point believes that new driver Lance Stroll is at the same level as the man whose seat he has taken, Esteban Ocon.

Ocon is considered as one of the most talented young drivers on the grid and many believe that he is unlucky to have lost his seat at the team formerly known as Force India.

It does seem rather coincidental that Lance Stroll, who is seen as a bit of a pay-driver, has found himself at Racing Point just months after his father bought the team out of administration.

But now Szafnauer says that the Canadian is up to Ocon’s level. During the ‘Beyond the Grid’ F1 podcast, he said: “Lance absolutely loved his time in the car, said the car can do the things he wants a car to do which is good, we were duly impressed with Lance.

“We were already impressed with him when he ran in the simulator. He was on the pace very quickly, up to Esteban’s [Ocon] level in the simulator.

“We were just hoping the pace that he showed in the simulator would translate onto the race track and it did. He was very quick on track too.

“So we’ve got some good potential there in Lance, we’ll work with him to hopefully teach him some things we know about how to drive the tyre, how to preserve it and how to make it go quick and last over the stints and we’ll do that with him, help him qualify better too.

“But he brings some great skills, he’s quick, he usually does a great job at the start and over the first lap, he usually makes up places, so we look forward to working with him.”