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Williams has stated that it retired Robert Kubica from the Russian Grand Prix to save parts for future races.
The Pole suffered his first non-finish of the year in Sochi, as he was pulled from the event shortly after teammate George Russell retired after hitting the wall with a car issue.
It marked Russell's second DNF of the season, the first of which came one weekend prior to Sochi, in Singapore.
After the race, senior race engineer Dave Robson said: "We took the opportunity behind the early safety car to pit Robert twice aiming to complete his race using only option tyres.
"Meanwhile we were able to leave George out and run long until a virtual safety car provided an opportunity for a cheap pitstop on to the qualifying tyre.
"Unfortunately, an issue shortly after the subsequent restart caused George to lock a front wheel, damaging the car further.
"We opted to retire Robert soon afterwards in order to conserve parts ahead of the intense flyaway races which end the season. It’s a very disappointing way to end two weeks on the road."
Kubica described his weekend as 'very disappointing' as he sets himself for the final five races of the season before he leaves Williams at the end of the year.
"This weekend has been very disappointing," he said. "You always have to try your best with what you have, and this is what I was trying to do.
"After George’s DNF, the team decided to stop my car, to take care of the parts that we have on the car. We are not in an easy situation and Japan is around the corner."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
4 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (6)
Login to replyxoya
Posts: 583
Crap.
I fear that this is the end of Williams as we know it. :/
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
That end began long ago by now. It's been long, drawn out and painful with a few glimpses of hope, but fact of the matter is that Williams haven't been genuinly competitivt since about 2006-2008ish. That was where the downward trend began, and continued all the way until 2014, where the Merc' PUs temporarily gave them a good enough boost where they could rely on it. But then it stopped being vastly OP, and then 2018 and 2019 happened. The Williams as we knew it is long gone, and only a vast restructuring will help them now. If even that. :/
abhidbgt
Posts: 283
They have been among the most reliable but still they are scrapping to get by.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Sadly reliability doesn't give you extra points if you lack the pace to climb up the top 10. This is one reason for why Points beyond P10 might be good, because it, in theory, could reward consistency.
siggy74
Posts: 194
In this case the rumors of the advanced tech section being up for sale.....
And the below comments taken with Roberts fathers supposed comments, isn't really a good picture of health...
Some failure on Georges front wheel brake system?
so we have car pulled over and stopped for some reason...mmmm
so the worry was another failure and then another car in the side wall... and not enough parts to repair the second car.... so no upgrades for this year ;p and very little parts for spares ;p
New owners for Williams before 2021 season on the way ;p
As calle has mention, only vast restructuring could help..... past that point... the drop in prize money.... the drop in money from the driver and his sponsor...
Serious cash flow issues.. on the way, if not already biting
Kean
Posts: 692
Williams have been too stubborn, still treating F1 like it was back in the day, they haven't adapted. Not buying the gearbox from Mercedes, for example, insisting on building its own. Which according to some costs them several tenths. I've been reluctant to buy into any sort of talk of Williams giving Russell preferential treatment, but now I'm not so sure. There are rumors stating that Williams really doesn't have the budget to race two cars, and Robert is left with the scraps. I think that Russell would have beaten Kubica either way, but perhaps not by over a second per lap.