British team’s troubles seems to have no end. The previous season Williams finished last in the constructions’ table with only seven points gained, the current one doesn’t bring happy news to the team.
Britishmen didn’t prepare the car for the beginning of the first tests in Barcelona, a few days later Paddy Lowe, technical director, went on vacation. He was responsible for the car a year ago and the current one. Kubica claimed, that the team was ready for racing in only 20%. This way Williams took part in the first Grand Prix in 2019, in Australia.
Pole warned to not expect anything from the team in the first races and in case of Melbourne he was right. Robert was unlucky in training sessions, first Lando Norris from McLaren drove just in front of him in the pit lane, later he probably damaged the car a bit in a contact with barrier. The qualifying went even worse – Kubica finished last in Q1 with 1.707 seconds behind 19th Russell, what could have been caused by the contact in the last training sessions.
Robert couldn’t have avoided bad luck in the race as well. In the first turn he encountered Gasly and he needed to change a front wing. As the result he didn’t improve his result and finished last, 3 laps behind Bottas, who won the race.
Williams treated this race as a continuation of practice, rather than rivalry against the others. A few decisions, like start on hard tyres, were dictated by the willing of test. The team, due to Kubica’s knowledge, will be more ready to compete after a few GPs, but it seems like this season will be used as approach to the rest, because Williams has undoubtedly the worst car. It is possible, that the team won’t beat their result from the previous year.
[photo: ROKiT Williams Racing Facebook]
