F1: Baldisserri leaves Ferrari to follow Stroll

Ex-Ferrari Formula 1 sporting director Luca Baldisserri has left the Prancing Horse to mentor Formula 3 ace and new Williams F1 development driver Lance Stroll (pictured).

Baldisserri, who previously race-engineered Michael Schumacher at Maranello, masterminded the Ferrari Driver Academy, to which Stroll was signed when he was an 11-year-old karter.

Massimo Rivola is set to take over as the new head of the FDA in the wake of 17-year-old Canadian Stroll's switch to Williams. Baldisserri will now oversee Stroll's progress with Williams, as well as in the F3 European Championship, which he will start as one of the favorites in 2016 with Prema Powerteam.

"Luca's going to be very close with Williams and especially Prema to help us all try and do a great job next year," said Stroll. "It's extremely important to have him with us and it's great that he will continue working with us.

"He's been with me since a very young age, when he chose me to come on the Ferrari program. He's very good at watching what's going on between the team and the driver – he's quiet when he has to be, but when it's time to speak up he says some very good things."

Stroll added that it was an ambition to emulate Williams's 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, the only Canadian to win an F1 title.

"The Villeneuve name in Canadian motorsport is big," he said. "Gilles and Jacques were both great drivers and it would be incredible to follow in their footsteps, especially Jacques.

"When Jacques was racing in F1 I was really little, and by the time I was old enough to follow things he wasn't really at the front."

Originally on Autosport.com