Williams’ Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams says Robert Kubica opted to sit out this morning’s test session in order to maximise the time available for the race drivers.
Kubica drove on Thursday morning, as schedule, and was initially set to return to action on Friday morning at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Sergey Sirotkin poised to pilot the FW41 in the afternoon.
However, Williams issued a revised line-up on Thursday evening, with Sirotkin’s time in the car moved to the morning session today (Friday), with Lance Stroll receiving the afternoon allocation.
Commenting on the change, Williams said: “It was actually under Robert’s instigation.
“He was due to run this morning but over the course of the seven days we’ve had here the race drivers over various different reasons whether it is the weather or directions we’ve taken it means they haven’t had the track time they needed in time for Australia.
“As everyone knows Robert is an incredibly considerate racing driver and we are very lucky in that and he knows for the team’s benefit the race drivers need the maximum amount of mileage so it was his generous offer yesterday.
“It wasn’t the team, we didn’t ask him, we didn’t ask Lance and Lance didn’t ask him, it was Robert and off his own back.
“Clearly we’re going to accept that as we need our race drivers to be in the best possible position they can be in for Australia so having them both in the car today will help us get to that point.”
Kubica’s next Formula 1 track action is likely to be during the opening practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix.
