Robert Kubica believes Williams has been “lucky” in 2019 that its “problem” over a lack of spare parts was masked by he and George Russell avoiding incidents for much of the season.
Williams has endured a lacklustre season with its recalcitrant FW42 and has yet to escape Q1; Kubica scored its only point so far at a rain-hit German Grand Prix.
Russell was involved in two incidents in Singapore in which the front-end of his car sustained damage, while he was eliminated in Russia when his car suffered a wheel nut retainer issue.
Kubica was then retired from the race due to the team’s concern over an availability of parts for the remaining ‘flyaway’ events.
“I think we were very lucky, or somehow you have to be lucky as well, as in first-lap accident you never know as you have no control of the others,” said Kubica.
“I think together with George we have been lucky the whole season not to do silly things, or limit silly things, and we were able to hide the problem for pretty long.
“But unfortunately Singapore and Russia showed up that we were not ready for what is called a risk of motorsport, and racing, as in the end nothing strange happened we just lost a couple of front wings, which might happen every weekend.”
Kubica, who will leave Williams at the end of the year, was nonetheless sympathetic of the team’s situation.
“Of course we were unfortunate with George losing two front wings in Singapore, and one in Russia, but still it’s kind of things that it’s racing, it can happen,” he said.
“I think we were pretty lucky it happened so late in the season as probably we [would have] faced the same problem of Russia earlier in the season if there was an accident.
“As a team we have to react to what happened and hopefully will not happen again.”
