Lewis Hamilton has admitted to feeling bad for Williams rookie Lance Stroll following his difficult start to testing.

On Tuesday, his first day of (official) testing, the Canadian youngster spun off, and while the resultant damage to the front wing was minimal there was no replacement. Consequently, the team had to bring its day to an early end and send the damaged wing back to Grove for repair.

Back in the car on Wednesday, to make up for Tuesday's lack of running, Stroll had two further offs, the second causing further damage to the front of the car and putting today's running in jeopardy.

Rob Smedley was quick to defend the youngster: "Lance was an innocent victim today when he was caught out by cold tyres at the end of the session," said the Briton. "The incident caused some damage and as a result we missed the final hour of running.

"The tyres being a little bit snappy has been something that both Felipe and Lance have commented on so I guess we’re all just acclimatising to them. We will thoroughly investigate how we as a team can help the drivers in this situation.

"Lance, however, has acclimatised well during his first day. It’s his first full day of F1 testing with the FW40 and we are comfortable with the progress he is making."

Among the first to empathise with the youngster was three-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who admitted that, due to the new rules, which have resulted in the cars being tougher to handle, 2017 is probably one of the worst seasons in which to make your debut.

"I feel for him," said the Mercedes driver, "in the sense that this is the toughest year to come into Formula One, being that these are the fastest and most physical cars and such a short amount of testing.

"I know he has been driving around the world testing in the Williams team," he continued, referring to the rumoured $80m preparation programme bankrolled by his billionaire father last year, "so he has definitely had more preparation time than any other driver coming in would have had.

"Last year's car is easy compared to this year's car," said the Briton. "These are only the first days and you can't just jump in and drive from no experience at all to being consistent. It is actually good for him to go through this now rather than at the first race."

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