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Williams is keeping the F1 world in suspense over whether Robert Kubica will return to the grid next year. With minor car modifications to accommodate his permanently injured right arm, the Pole on Wednesday beat the times set by Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll -- the other Williams testers in Abu Dhabi.
But there are still rumours that Kubica, 32, has disappointed Williams with his performance. "I'm not going to talk about speed," Williams boss Paddy Lowe insisted. "I'm sure you want to hear answers but we're not ready to discuss it. We are yet to analyse the results ourselves."
And so he said other reported candidates to replace Felipe Massa next year - believed to be Sirotkin, Paul di Resta, Daniil Kvyat and Pascal Wehrlein - are still in the running. "If we test some drivers, that doesn't mean that we will choose between only them. These were tyre tests, and we also took the opportunity to look at two different drivers," said Lowe. "We will make a decision when we are ready." (GMM)
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (5)
Login to replyBarron
Posts: 625
I’ll be honest, it’s not looking great for Robert. He should have smashed Stroll’s time and at least run as quick as Massa’s race pace with softer tyre but I heard he didn’t. I suppose you have to factor in that the car is a bit of s dog, but Massa has to be the benchmark.
Niids
Posts: 43
It was tests only, tyre tests. You really think Stroll suddenly found his pace and became quicker than Alonso or Hulkenberg? And Grosjean In his Haas became quicker than them all? I could maybe belive it if they weren't racing on this track couple days earlier. We can't say anything about this results without details we will never know.
Barron
Posts: 625
I agree but these were most certainly not tyre tests for Robert even though he ran on various compounds. Make no mistake, this is a final test to see if Robert can perform at the highest level..
Kean
Posts: 692
First off I know it's only testing, we don't know anything about testing programs or fuel loads etc. But I bet if Kubica had been really fast, Williams would be talking about it. Now just looking at the times posted... He was 0,1sec faster than Stroll, but I don't think that is enough for Williams. Also Sirotkin was only 0,5 sec off the pace on the soft compound and Kubica set his best time on the hyper soft which are about 1 sec per lap faster than ultra soft according to Pirelli. So basically Sirotkins time is a bit more impressive. Smedley also confirmed that DiResta had been faster than Kubica at the test in Hungary. Just looking at what has been published about Kubicas performance it seems at a glance that DiResta and Sirotkin are faster, then we have Kvyat and Wehrlein.. How do they stack up against the rest? I say scrap all aforementioned drivers and put Rosenqvist in there instead.
Dash_Riprock
Posts: 6
Massa put a Brazilian beat-down on Stroll. That means that Williams will be making a purely financial decision (which I agree they should be doing). Williams decision will be made by, 1. who brings the most cash and 2. can help score points = WCC money.
I can't fathom the WCC money being either DiResta or Sirotkin (....or Stroll really). So, who brings the largest dowry? (besides Stroll of course)