Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe has rejected any suggestion Robert Kubica could be given additional practice outings in an effort to improve their struggling car.
After the first two races of the season, the Grove-based team is the only one yet to have a scored a point this season with Sergey Sirotkin admitting they “looked like idiots” afterwards.
Some have considered, given the inexperience of the Russian and teammate Lance Stroll, whether giving Kubica more time in the FW41 could be beneficial to offer stronger feedback, but Lowe disagreed.
“Having two young drivers doesn’t make the task easier when the car doesn’t work,” the former Mercedes man admitted. “[But] we would be taking away important track time for Sergey and he needs every kilometre.”
A new design philosophy for this year is the main reason for the problems, as the team tries to unlock the potential, however, on Thursday, Stroll expressed further frustration at Williams’ current plight.
“In Bahrain, it was shocking how much of a step backwards [we made] – four-tenths slower than I was last year,” he revealed.
“We were losing time on the straights. We haven’t improved. We improved a bit in the corners, but not even close to the extent we were hoping for.
“But then in Australia, we improved the lap time a little bit compared to last year when Felipe [Massa] was in Q3. It’s a bit up and down, but it’s still early days,” the Canadian added.
“There are still 19 races to go, and there’s a lot more to understand and to look at before we come to a conclusion.”