Lance Stroll has hit back after his former boss accused him recently of arriving in F1 "too early".
Stroll, now 20, spent his first two seasons in F1 at Williams.
Last year, the once-great British team finished dead last overall, and technical boss Paddy Lowe said Stroll had "arrived in F1 too early".
When asked about Lowe’s comments, Stroll - who has switched to Racing Point for 2019 - said he did not want to get into a war of words.
"All I can say is that the car was badly born last year and the engineers did not know how to develop it during the season," the Canadian told Le Journal de Montreal.
"When I took part in a test session two days after the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi, I was 1.4 seconds faster in a car I had never driven," Stroll added.
"I think the times did the talking in Abu Dhabi. But it’s a thing of the past," Stroll insisted. "I’m starting a new chapter in my career."
Indeed, prior to the Racing Point rebranding, Force India was a top midfield contender in 2018 and Stroll says the team will do "great things" this year.
"We have an outstanding organisation, which we have proved in recent years with limited resources," he said.
"We don’t want to be at the back of the pack, which happened too often last year," Stroll added, referring to Williams in 2018.
"Podiums are achievable. Our new team has the means to beat many teams in F1."