Lance Stroll has said he understands Esteban Ocon’s impending exit from Force India is “unfair”, but he still believes he is deserving of replacing him.

Ocon revealed at the Belgian Grand Prix that he does not have a seat at Force India next season as it is has been “bought” by the Stroll family.

This prompted both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel to defend the Frenchman, while rumours circulated that Ocon could in fact be dislodged before the current season is finished.

After Lance’s father, Lawrence, completed his takeover of Force India, it is a matter of when, not if, Lance makes the move from Williams.

But, while he understands the harsh reality that exists in Formula 1, Stroll thinks he deserves more credit and that his driving ability, not his money, should be taken into account, too.

“I’m not arguing that point, but my results and what I’ve done in the past should have been acknowledged a little bit more,” Stroll told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview.

“It’s very harsh. Sometimes a footballer has more ability, potentially, than another.

“It just happens to be that one gets thrown in a shi**y club, and another with less ability gets a great pay cheque at a better club.

“I’m not disagreeing that the system isn’t entirely fair all the time.

“But I deserve more than just mention of the money that’s behind me. And it’s not entirely my father.

“Aside from him, I bring in partnerships with JCB, Canada Life, Bombardier. So, I think there’s a separation between my father and I, to a certain extent.”

Stroll is well aware that the imminent move will not sit well with others and does understand how the situation looks from Ocon’s perspective.

“Potentially, my father buying this team can make it a much better team, much more competitive. It’s not, in my eyes, a big negative,” he added.

“From Esteban’s point of view, it’s triggered towards me, because my father’s involved in Force India. Drivers from certain backgrounds will have their view on how things should be. Drivers with financial backing will think otherwise.

“If he takes me to Force India, that’s his choice, and I understand that for Esteban, that might not be great or fair.

“But I think that I deserve to be recognised more for the results I’ve achieved. I wanted to get that off my chest.”

Formula 1's rear wings are set to be raised higher next year and the position of mirrors changed as part of a raft of measures that have been agreed to help improve driver visibility, Motorsport.com has learned.

The FIA has been looking into the rearwards vision problems caused by the current generation of cars since the start of the year.

Its work accelerated after a near miss involving Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel in qualifying for the Austrian GP.

An initial push to impose changes for the Singapore GP was abandoned, but discussions with teams in technical regulations meetings (TRM) have now resulted in a raft of tweaks to the rules.

These changes still need approving at F1's next Strategy Group meeting and at the FIA's World Motor Sport Council before being put in the rules, but this is likely to be a formality.

The new rules will include the raising of the rear wing by 50mm in order to create a bigger window of visibility between the lower surface of the main plane and the top surface of the sidepod.

Furthermore, a more prescriptive mirror position will be laid out in the rules – with them being lower and more outboard to ensure they are situated in a better place for the drivers.

There will also be more stricter rules on mirror mountings to try to ensure teams do not put performance gains over safety matters.

The debate about the need for a change in the mirror rules resurfaced at the Belgian GP when during final free practice an unsighted Stoffel Vandoorne was accidentally pushed off the track by Valtteri Bottas, who said he could not see the fast-approaching McLaren driver.

When asked by Motorsport.com about how bad the current mirrors are, Bottas said: "For me, I think it is a bit more difficult than it has been.

"The main thing is the position of the rear wing, the size of the rear wing, and visibility for the mirrors. The wing is blocking part of the visibility directly back."

The planned raising of the rear wing will come at a time when F1 is already introducing a package of changes to help overtaking – with the rear already already set to be wider and deeper to make DRS more effective.

Mazepin or Markelov to replace Stroll at Williams?

The FIA has outlined the changes it will make to DRS zones for the remainder of the season.

As part of the governing body's push to help improve overtaking, it has already modified the DRS areas at a number of tracks throughout the campaign.

Now, ahead of a decision to lengthen the second DRS zone in Italy this weekend, F1 race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed plans for the final races with changes being made at four other tracks.

In Russia, the main DRS zone which runs down the start-finish straight and around Turn 1 will be extended.

In Austin, the DRS on the backstraight between Turns 11 and 12 will be lengthened.

The DRS zone in Brazil after Turn 14 will be lengthened by 100 metres, while both DRS zones in Abu Dhabi will be extended.

Although the ease of overtaking moves in Belgium led to questions about whether the DRS zone was too long, F1 race director Charlie Whiting did not sense that there was a problem.

"Spa is different, isn't it?" he said. "You saw in a lot of cases there, Sebastian [Vettel] got past Lewis [Hamilton] without DRS and that's simply because you get a better run through Eau Rouge. We always see it here don't we? It'll be different on other circuits."

Formula 1 teams have approved a plan to introduce rear wing rain lights in 2019 in a bid to help make cars stand out more in low visibility conditions, Motorsport.com can reveal.

At the post-Spanish Grand Prix test earlier this year, Lewis Hamilton trialled a version of the vertical LED light strips as part of an evaluation study by the FIA.

The idea is that by having the extra flashing lights higher up than the traditional rain light fitted at the rear, there will be more chance of cars standing out in heavy spray conditions.

With the tests having proven a success in terms of the functionality of the lights, a proposal to make them mandatory for 2019 was put forward to teams during a recent vote at a technical regulations meeting (TRM).

With teams unanimously backing the plan, the necessary approval at the next Strategy Group, and then ratification by the World Motor Sport Council, should be a formality before the rear wings light are officially put in the rules.

Rear endplate lights are not new in motor racing, with them having already appeared at various times in the World Endurance Championship.

Both Vettel and teammate Kimi Raikkonen drove the car as part of a demonstration event on the streets of Milan’s Darsena dockland area.

During his turn, Vettel understeered at slow speed into a plastic barrier, the impact dislodging the front wing and he was forced to reverse and then tour back to the makeshift pitlane.

Earlier, they were joined by Sauber’s Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson, and Toro Rosso duo Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley.

Thousands of fans lined the streets to watch the F1 cars in action, with Sauber also bringing an older-spec V8-powered car to the show, while Bernd Maylander (Mercedes F1 safety car) and Giancarlo Fisichella (Ferrari FXX) also performed.

Vettel suffered a low-speed incident during the Wednesday afternoon demo, running wide into a plastic barrier and dislodging the car's front wing.

Though the car was liveried with his numbers, four-time world champion Vettel said he was using Raikkonen's car and steering wheel, which he says has a different clutch control.

"I apologised," Vettel said. "I went with the car and the steering wheel of Kimi, who had the clutch on the other side.

"I didn't think about it, and at that point I was too fast. I asked if it would be possible to change the wing to do two more laps for the fans.

"Obviously it was my mistake, but that's OK."

Having the clutch control on opposing sides, which will be down to each driver's preference and what they are comfortable with, is not the only difference between Vettel's and Raikkonen's wheels.

Vettel's has an additional paddle on the back for an unconfirmed function.

Last year, Vettel switched to a dual finger-hole clutch paddle arrangement, before reverting to the same single-clutch system Raikkonen kept for the whole year.

Both have retained the single-paddle set-up this season.

Though the crash marked a sheepish beginning to Ferrari's home grand prix, Vettel arrives at Monza as favourite after his victory in Belgium last Sunday.

He said: "It's a special weekend for us and the team and I feel it as well.

"We hope to give Monza great emotions and with this Ferrari I know that we can do a great race.

"For us this race is a championship. I know it has created enthusiasm for the fans and I hope to be able to dream with them."

Kvyat in frame for shock Toro Rosso return

Norris to replace Vandoorne at McLaren in 2019

What's left to sort in F1's crazy 2019 driver market

F1 2019 line-ups

Confirmed

Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas
Red Bull: Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly
Renault: Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg
McLaren: Carlos Sainz Jr, Lando Norris

Expected

Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc/Kimi Raikkonen
Racing Point Force India: Lance Stroll, Sergio Perez
Haas: Kevin Magnussen, TBD
Toro Rosso: Daniil Kvyat, TBD

Seats up for grabs

Haas x1
Toro Rosso x1
Sauber x2
Williams x2

Pat Fry has returned to McLaren in the role of engineering director, eight years after he left the team for Ferrari.

Starting his F1 career with Benetton, Fry worked for McLaren from 1993 until 2010, rising to the role of chief engineer before joining Ferrari. Four years at Maranello saw Fry become director of engineering, before he left the team in 2014. He then worked with Manor as an engineering consultant before the team closed at the end of the 2016 season

As RACER reported during the Italian Grand Prix weekend, Fry had been in talks with McLaren over a possible return to Woking and he has now been appointed engineering director. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown confirmed the news on Tuesday after announcing Fry’s return to the team at the McLaren Technology Centre earlier in the day.

The arrival of Fry continues a major overhaul of McLaren’s technical department after a poor 2018 season to date, with the Renault-powered MCL33 having picked up just 12 points in the past nine races.

Toro Rosso technical director James Key has already been signed to join the team in the same role but a start date has yet to be agreed for the highly-rated Englishman, and Brown also confirmed on Tuesday that McLaren will have to wait until next year at the earliest for Key to join.

“I think we’re in a pretty good place now,” Brown said. “We still need to kind of populate — i.e. James [Key’s] start — but Andrea Stella is leading all performance, setting the targets, and it’s for Pat as engineering director to execute, so it will ultimately be led by Andrea with Pat, the development of next year’s car.

“And then of course there’s lots of people that feed into that. Pete Prodromou from an aero, Mark Ingham and Neil Oatley from design, Simon Roberts the COO ultimately responsible for bringing everything together and Gil [de Ferran] on the sporting side but at the end of the day it’s Andrea and Pat who are going to drive next year’s car.”

Former racing director Eric Boullier and chief technical officer Tim Goss have already left McLaren as part of the changes this season, with chief engineer Matt Morris also being confirmed as departing at the same time Key’s acquisition was announced.