Robert Kubica has announced that he will not participate in the 2017 World Endurance Championship, despite having signed with the ByKolles team in February.
The Polish driver had been due to make his competitive WEC debut this weekend at the season-opener at Silverstone, but confirmed in a statement that he had chosen to "step down" from the race seat with the privateer LMP1 team.
"After the Prologue, I have decided to interrupt my racing program with the ByKolles team in LMP1," he said. "Therefore, I will not take part in the upcoming WEC Silverstone opening round and in the other WEC races.
"It has been a hard decision to step down and so lose the opportunity to join such a challenging and competitive championship, but I hope this will not be a definitive goodbye."
Kubica trialled the Nissan-powered LMP1 car in November, but was unable to test during the recent Prologue when the team chose to pack up early following reliability issues.
With the loss of Kubica, ByKolles has only one confirmed driver in Oliver Webb.
