Sergey Sirotkin has asserted that he can be “happy” with how he performed in 2018, in the wake of missing out on a seat on next year’s Formula 1 grid.
Sirotkin stepped up to Formula 1 with Williams for 2018 but his graduation coincided with the team’s slump in form.
Sirotkin scored just a single point, courtesy of 10th in Italy, though edged Racing Point-bound team-mate Lance Stroll in the qualifying battle.
The Russian youngster lost his seat after Williams opted to promote Robert Kubica as George Russell’s 2019 partner, but Sirotkin expressed satisfaction with how he performed.
“I mean I think I can be quite happy with what I did to be honest,” he said.
“For sure there are certain things I could do better, for sure there are certain things where I was unlucky, and were a bit out of my control.
“So a few things on top of each other for sure, at certain points the results could [have been] a bit better.
“I think I’m leaving here [Williams] with a clear objective in my head that I have something that I could not show yet for obvious reasons.
“I do have this very strong confidence inside myself.
“Hopefully one day you won’t need to ask me [about performance], hopefully one day it will be very visible on the results, believe me I will do more than anyone else to grab the chance.”
Sirotkin added that there was an element of sadness at not being able to continue through 2019.
“I do believe that, for sure, there were certain situations where I could do better, where I could drive better for sure,” he said.
“Everything in your life looking back in the past there’s many things you can do in your life, that’s the same in racing.
“But I think the way we worked and we are now, I feel so sad that I didn’t do all what I could in F1.
“I think I could do much, much more, let me say it in the way that if at some point I had another chance I’m really ready to use it and prove that I could show much more than for obvious reasons I could not do this year.”
