Lynn doesn't aim to match Vandoorne's GP2 title campaign

Vandoorne was utterly dominant in GP2 in 2016, scoring almost twice the points of his nearest rival and setting new records for points, wins and podiums in a given season.

For Lynn, who won races as a rookie last year and returns for a sophomore title shot, the Belgian's season is not something he expects to replicate.

"You look at the season Stoffel's had last season, it was pretty out of ordinary," Lynn said.

"Fair enough, he deserved all of those [accolades].

"I definitely just want to win loads of races, win the title in a convincing matter... or just win it, to be honest.

"At the end of the day, there are so many competitive drivers and I love the fact the championship is so raw, it's the best drivers, best teams, just all going at it, no other politics, pure racing.

"That's what I like and hopefully the cream rises to the top and hopefully I can be the guy."

DAMS engineering shake-up

In 2016, Lynn will continue with the DAMS squad that has won three drivers' titles in the past five seasons with Romain Grosjean, Davide Valsecchi and Jolyon Palmer.

However, after the French team finished third behind ART Grand Prix and Racing Engineering in the standings last year, Lynn is adamant changes were needed.

Speaking about his and the team's pre-season form, Lynn said: "[Testing] has gone really positive, actually. I think GP2 testing is always quite strange compared to Formula 1 - they're really, really limited on tyres. It's all a bit of a chess game as to when you run them.

"I feel that, as a team, DAMS over the past few years have not been the cleverest when they've done testing, but we've had a massive engineering reshuffle this year, which I think was needed.

"The team had won the last three of five drivers' championships, so always a lot of success - and I do feel the team had gotten a little bit stale so they needed a bit of rejuvenation, which we've had.

"I feel that it's had a massive impact and I feel we're in a really, really good place.

Going up against Gasly and Sirotkin

For the upcoming season, Lynn said he expects former DAMS teammate Pierre Gasly and Vandoorne's ART successor Sergey Sirotkin to be his main rivals for the crown.

"I think Pierre Gasly in the Prema car [is a contender], he was my teammate last year, Red Bull-backed and he's got a lot of pressure on himself this year to perform.

"The Russian, Sergey Sirotkin, I think he was really consistent last year and he's now in Stoffel's car, so you'd expect him to step up.

"And I see those two guys as really the guys to be there every day [that I have to] try and beat."

Speaking more about Red Bull protege Gasly, who hasn't won a race since his Eurocup Formula Renault title back in 2013, Lynn said: "Not to put him down or anything, but he hasn't won a race in two years and that, as a driver, does start to eat at you.

"We live for winning races and that feeling that you get - and when you haven't had it for a while, you start to forget it and you start to doubt yourself.

"I feel like I kinda have a handle on him."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble