Massa, Stroll in disagreement over F1 mentor/tutee roles

Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll have fired verbal shots over their supposed mentor-tutee roles during their time as Formula 1 teammates at Williams in 2017.

Massa looked set to spend last season leading Williams' charge as the rookie Stroll, 18, got up to speed, only for the pair to ultimately be separated by just three points in the final drivers' championship standings.

Massa compared his role as the older hand to aid Stroll to that of Michael Schumacher when the Brazilian himself was new at Ferrari in 2006, only for his former teammate to recently disagree with this likeness.

Stroll told Motorsport.com that he did not think Massa had offered 'any guidance whatsoever' during their time together, and was baffled by belief there were mentor-tutee roles at Williams.

Reacting to the news story by quote-retweeting a link on Twitter, Massa posted a shocked face emoji before writing: "Better not to comment."

The disagreement was not the first sign of a needle between Stroll and Massa, with the pair offering some veiled answers through their final press conference together in Brazil towards the end of last season.

After being asked about Stroll's development through his rookie season, Massa joked the Canadian had learned from "a good teacher" at Williams before adding: "Maybe next year he can qualify closer to another driver that he’ll race."

Massa left Williams at the end of 2017 after deciding to retire from F1, making way for rookie Sergey Sirotkin to join the team ahead of the new season.