Robert Kubica admits Williams had been “lucky” to survive this season with a lack of spare parts until the Russian Grand Prix.
When teammate George Russell retired in Sochi as a result of a wheel nut issue, the Grove-based squad quickly decided to pull in Kubica, a move that upset his sponsor who demanded an explanation.
It was then that Williams revealed parts were running low and needed to be conserved for the final five races of the season, a fear they had been contending with for much of 2019.
“I think we were very lucky because [there could be] a first-lap accident, you never know as you have no control of the other drivers,” Kubica said via Motorsport Week.
“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 the risk of motorsport and racing, in the end, nothing strange happened we just lost a couple of front wings, which might happen every weekend.”
Before Singapore, Williams was the only team to go the full season without a retirement or even a significant incident in other sessions, but Kubica noted the situation could have been much, much worse.
“Of course we were unfortunate with George losing two front wings in Singapore and one in Russia, but still it’s the kind of thing that happens, it’s racing, it can happen,” he said.
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“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.”