George Russell has told Williams teammate Robert Kubica that there's no point in the pair fighting against each other just to finish 19th.
The British team is expected to start the new Formula 1 season still at the back of the grid after a reported design flaw led to delays getting their 2019 car ready for winter testing.
Williams would only start running their new car last Wednesday, missing over half of the first test, and now face a big task to make up for lost time ahead of the season-opener in Australia.
"We cannot and do not want to be rivals," Russell was quoted by GPFans.com of the relationship with the Pole. "We can't fight over 19th place. We want to help Williams to achieve something bigger.
"It will not work if we compete with each other. We need to cooperate."
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Naturally, Kubica will be very eager to optimise his return to F1 after eight years and was very pessimistic by the events of last week, suggesting he still knew "nothing" about the new Williams.
Russell though was trying to remain optimistic.
"I had a good feeling in the car. It seems balanced," he claimed. "But we cannot say much yet because I haven't explored the limits of the car.
"We still need to optimise all the areas because everything was done at the last minute."
