Lance Stroll believes the 'Pink Mercedes' tag that has been given to this year's Racing Point car is unfair.

The team owned by the Canadian's father Lawrence Stroll has generated attention for creating a car that appears almost identical to last year's championship-winning W11.

And the performance the RP20 showed in testing has generated hype that Racing Point could perhaps even challenge Ferrari in the opening races, when the 2020 season does finally get underway.

"We're definitely excited, it's a long season, who knows how long the season is going to be with the coronavirus, but we're excited," Stroll commented via Formula1.com.

"It has been a long winter, a lot of work has gone into the RP20, the guys back at the factory have done a great job to produce this racecar, so year we're on the edge of our seats for what's to come."

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Asked if he thought the 'Pink Mercedes' nickname was justified, however, Stroll added: "No, I don't think that's fair at all actually.

"We've constructed this car ourselves back at Silverstone and no-one can take that away from us."

A few years ago, Racing Point, under the previous guise as Force India, led the midfield with Sergio Perez sneaking onto the podium, usually in chaotic or strategic races.

And it does seem likely the team could be in a similar position again this year, giving Stroll hope of adding to his third-place finish from Baku in 2017.

"It was a while ago when I was young and now I'm plucking grey hairs from my head," the, ahem, 21-year-old smiled.

"That's the plan for sure, it would be nice, I got a sniff last year in Germany, I was sitting on a podium step there for a while until the last few laps when the Ferrari came breezing by, but hopefully this year we have a machine that can give us the opportunity more often and yeah, get back on that podium, it's been a while since I picked up some silverware!"

Teammate Perez was also optimistic, though played down any suggestion that the team was in a position to regularly fight any of the leading teams.

"I think we definitely have a good car, but I think the top cars are still quite a bit ahead," he said.

"The midfield group is very tight - so to get podiums you still rely on things happening to the top three.

"But we will see, I think probably we have closed up the gap. I don't know how much, I'm curious to find out, but we'll see if we can make [podiums] happen this year."