Claire Williams wants us to cut her ride-buyer some slack

Claire Williams, sticking up for the spoon that feeds her team

Claire Williams has told critics of 18-year-old Lance Stroll to cut him some slack as he crashes the FW40 almost every race. The ride-buying rich Canadian with a billionaire father has finished only twice in the first six races and has been consistently off the pace of teammate Felipe Massa – an old man that Williams had originally put out to pasture.

Stroll has received heavy criticism across the motorsport community, but Williams has said that it is not justified due to how tough it is for a rookie to come in and race at 18-years-old: "There's a lot of pressure on Lance's shoulders and we all have to remember how young he is still," Williams told ESPN. "The transition between a junior Formula and Formula One is huge and I think people underestimate that.

"If you look at other drivers that are currently in our sport, the Vettels, the Raikkonens, those guys all had similar starts to their rookie years in Formula One. So people need to cut Lance some slack, if that was my one message that's what I would do and ask people to be a bit kinder to him."

Williams thinks that the speed and impressiveness of Max Verstappen hasn't helped rookies, as Verstappen has shone since his inaugural year in 2015.

"I think with drivers we have in Formula One, all the rookies we have in Formula One are all comparing themselves to Max and that's equally not fair. These guys need to take a year to familiarize themselves with what they do, it's a unique, unique situation that we have someone like Max Verstappen in a Red Bull and misconception that people can come in and do what they do like that. These guys need to take some time and get experience under their belts."