Robert Kubica's fairytale return to Formula 1 got off to a disappointing start as his team missed the bulk of the first four days of Formula 1 preseason testing at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.
On the final morning of testing in Barcelona, three days behind schedule, he finally climbed into the Williams FW42 which was "compromised" so that the team could make it on to the track.
Kubica did 48 laps during his stint with his best effort slowest of all by nearly four seconds to the top time and 1.5 seconds down on the next best, the lack of track time clearly hampering their performance.
Of his brief time in the new car, the Pole told reporters in Barcelona, "You can get a feel of it, it's not like the car is completely off. I think there is still something to put on to the car, but probably not a lot, for sure there are things that were compromised."
"It's not right that I talk about them. I'm here for driving, so I have to concentrate on this. Finally, I have a car. Hopefully next week we can concentrate on preparing better for the first race because it's close."
"For me, it doesn't feel like day four of testing, it feels like day one. I got the opportunity to do 12 laps to get a feel for the car, which is of course limiting. It wasn't an easy morning."
"I've been here since last Friday. I've never waited so long to get 12-14 laps, that I could drive my own pace. It wasn't nice days for all the team but finally we got the car. In the end, the team did a good job to build it up as quickly as possible."
Kubica revealed that the team had to build the FW42 "five times quicker than normal" so that they could get it to Spain for what is basically a shakedown for him and rookie teammate Goerge Russell who did the first tentative laps in the car late on Wednesday.
The Formula 2 champion took over the cockpit from his teammate for a final afternoon session.
Asked to compare the new car to its disastrous predecessor, Kubica said, "In some ways it is a step forward. For the others, not necessarily. The question is if we have done a bigger step forward and smaller backwards, because of regulations. Then it's a question of balancing."
"At this stage it's not correct to talk about the performance of the car, or feelings. We will see next weekend," added the one-time Grand Prix winner.
https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/12/10/kubica-maybe-williams-should-have-listened-to-the-drivers/
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