Stoffel Vandoorne believes Williams' new recruit Sergey Sirotkin is the real deal and fully deserves his chance to race in Formula 1.
Williams insists its choice of awarding the Russian a seat alongside Lance Stroll was warranted by his performance against Robert Kubica at the Abu Dhabi post-season test.
Many are still debating Sirotkin's merits however, believing the 22-year-old owes his graduation to F1 to the generous support package provided by his benefactor SMP Bank.
McLaren's Vandoorne, who raced against Sirotkin in GP2 in 2015, offered a ringing endorsement of the rookie's talent.
"Williams made the right choice," the Belgian told 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."
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