Robert Kubica says the opening Grands Prix of 2019 will be akin to test sessions for Williams after completing just 20 per cent of his targets during the running in Spain.
Williams’ first test was effectively a write-off due to delays in readying its FW42 and while it amassed encouraging mileage during the second test, it remained at the bottom of the charts.
Kubica also finished firmly at the back of the 20-driver field through the course of the four days.
His best time of 1:18.993 was eight-tenths down on Williams team-mate George Russell – who was second-slowest – with nearest non-Williams opponent Sergio Perez over a second faster.
Kubica’s programme on Friday was brought to a premature halt due to excessive wear on critical bodywork components, limiting the usefulness of the collected data.
“Going to the first race after eight years without doing a proper job of testing will be difficult,” he said.
“That is the reality of the situation and I can’t do anything else but prepare as much as I can.
“Probably I did 20 per cent of what I should know and do during this test. We will see
“I have not gone longer than 15 laps on a long run. So there are a lot of question marks. But that is the reality. We did the maximum of what we had.
“There are some positive things. My last real run when I felt the car well was before yesterday afternoon, first run, when the car did things which I was nicely surprised.
“So I got up a lot of confidence but since then my confidence disappeared because the car was not in the right shape.”
When asked whether the opening events would be similar to testing for Williams, Kubica replied: “Unfortunately, I think yes.
“We face a big delay. And some of today’s issues are a consequence of being in a rush.
“So if you struggle to have a car for the week before you will struggle to have spare parts. “Today we were required to have some bits to replace them and we could not replace them. “In the end we did the maximum with what we had. But this maximum is not enough because the car was far from optimal.”
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