Kubica offered to give up his place to the incumbent Williams at Barcelona

After testing in the morning on Thursday, the Pole was supposed to get back behind the wheel of the FW41 on Friday morning then hand over the baton to Sergey Sirotkin. It was ultimately the Russian debutant who launched the final preparations for the team. Whole grained before Melbourne and will be replaced by his teammate Lance stroll in the afternoon.

« The change of program was made at the initiative of Robert, Williams explained to reporters present in Barcelona. During the previous seven days, our pilots did not have the hoped-for driving time for Australia, whether due to the weather conditions or the work directions we took.

Robert is a very caring pilot and we are very happy and lucky to have him with us. He knows that it is in the interest of the team to have the starters in the car so he offered to give up his place yesterday, which is very generous of him.

We didn't ask him, nor did Lance. It was Robert on his own and we accepted because our drivers need to be in the best possible condition before the season kicks off. Having them both on track today will definitely help us. »

Sirotkin debuts in Formula 1 this year, while Lance Stroll has a season of experience with Williams under his belt.