Williams pinning hopes on Alex Lynn for F1 future

Last year's GP3 champion was a Red Bull junior and having driven for Lotus during Abu Dhabi's 2014 F1 post-season test, Lynn was taken on by Williams at the start of the year as its development driver.

On Wednesday, the 21-year-old will be given his first taste of the team's FW37 on the second day of the in-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya.

With Lynn on the F1 ladder, there is every chance he could follow the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button onto the grid, while Finn Valtteri Bottas served a similar apprenticeship with Williams before making his grand prix debut in 2013.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT, Williams said: "In all honesty, it's too early to tell whether he will make the step up.

"But he has shown he is quick, he listens - which is really important - he gives great feedback, and he is willing to be a part of the team.

"He has all the ingredients, but we will have to see how it shakes out over the course of the year to see what the end product is.

"I really hope he does because he is a great guy, he has worked really hard, has been patient, and he's British, and how great would that be to have another British talent come into our sport?

"When we looked at this role we very much wanted a development driver, to replicate what we did with Valtteri and integrate a driver into the team.

"Personally for me I really wanted a British driver, just being nationalistic about it. I quite fancied British driver, British team."

There is understandably considerable pressure on Lynn, but he stepped up to the plate in Spain last weekend, taking his maiden GP2 victory in the sprint race for DAMS.

"Before we made an appointment we did quite a lot of evaluation work on a lot of the drivers out there, and Alex obviously topped the list for us," Williams said.

"He's integrated really well, he's doing his whole internship thing, been working doing his rotations around composites, hydraulics, all the different departments.

"The work he has done in the simulator, he is improving his consistency and his speed, which has been really important for us.

"He is going to have a lot on his plate this year doing that role for us, syncing it with his GP2 season, which is hugely competitive. He has his work cut out.

"He has to prove to us he can do the job because competition for seats in F1 is high, as we all know, and that's always going to be his ambition, his dream, so he has to deliver the goods.

"So far he has done everything we have asked of him, and done it really well."