Stoffel Vandoorne reckons the Williams Martini Racing team made the right choice in picking Sergey Sirotkin to partner Lance Stroll in 2018, and he believes the Russian is deserving of the promotion into Formula 1.
Current McLaren F1 Team racer Vandoorne competed against Sirotkin during the 2015 GP2 Series season, and although the Belgian dominated to take the title for ART Grand Prix, the Russian showed well to finish third for Rapax, including a win in the Silverstone Feature race.
Sirotkin has been a test driver for both the Sauber F1 Team (in 2014) and Renault Sport Formula 1 Team (2016-17), and ran for Williams for the first time in the post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix test, and beat the likes of Robert Kubica, Paul di Resta, Daniil Kvyat and Pascal Wehrlein to the final available race seat on the grid.
Vandoorne feels Sirotkin is a very quick driver who is always striving to improve his skills, and he expects the twenty-two-year-old to surprise a few people on track in 2018.
“Williams made the right choice,” said Vandoorne to Belgian publication La Derniere Heure. ” I raced against Sergey in the junior categories and I can tell you he is a very good driver.
“He’s fast and he works hard to improve. Honestly, Sergey is much faster than many people think.”
