Robert Kubica claims he is only “20 percent” ready for the Australian Grand Prix after Williams’ miserable pre-season.
The Pole’s frustrations finally boiled over after the final day of testing, when he was limited to largely pit-stop practice in the afternoon as worn parts made meaningful running very difficult.
Now, Kubica also heads to the first race in the knowledge that a personal battle with teammate George Russell in most likely given the performance deficit, which is not the comeback he imagined.
“That’s the situation, I cannot change it,” Kubica said of Williams’s predicament last week.
“I have to make sure we are doing everything that we can, from my side. Coming back after eight years, probably I know 20 per cent of the things that I should know before going to Australia.
“The rest is unknown. I haven’t done longer than 15 laps long run. There is a lot of question marks. But that’s the reality, we cannot change it.”
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What made the final day problems even more infuriating for Kubica, is his first day in the car during the second test brought some reasons for encouragement.
“My last real run when I feel the car well was [Wednesday] afternoon, first run, when the car did things which I was surprised [by], a really nice surprise,” he explained.
“So I get up really a lot of confidence, but since then my confidence disappears because the car was not in the right state.”
As for expectations heading to Melbourne…
“First of all we have to make sure the car stays in one piece,” Kubica claimed. “Because the reality is, my test ended after the first run in the afternoon [on Wednesday]. The rest, I have to forget how I drove and what I felt.”
