Kubica: I am a passenger in the Williams

Robert Kubica has revealed the struggles he has experienced since returning to Formula 1 with Williams. The Grove-based team has been off the pace of the rest of the field and languishing at the back of the pack in 2019.

A difficult beginning to the season has seen Williams comfortably slowest of any team in the sport with Kubica himself finishing last of the classified finishers in both races so far this year.

The Pole's heroic return to F1 was a feel-good story at the beginning of the year but he has revealed that the team is struggling to such a degree, both he and Williams teammate George Russell were forced to stay off the kerbs in Bahrain due to a lack of spare parts available to them.

Perhaps more depressing is the fact that Kubica says he doesn't see any major improvements in the near future.

“When there was more driver-ability I think I did well,” he explained to Motorsport.com.

“I’ve been eight years no driving, so I think I took good decisions. Some things were positive, but it’s extremely difficult. Everything is building up – all the difficulties.

“Australia by running over one kerb where everybody took it, I lost pieces of the car. In Bahrain, I stay out of the kerbs. The time in qualifying I use them, another bit flew away.

“And then in the race, actually I realised I’m not using them, or I’m using them only because I was put there, I don’t use them as a track. If you start tightening up corners, you put more load on the tyres. It is a complicated situation. I was so slow in some corners to try to protect the rear tyres, but I was still sliding and still overheating them.

“There will be a point hopefully one day, when all these limitations, I can forget about it, the car will be more solid, stay all together and it will become more fun as well.

“Until now it’s like I have to make sure I actually turn into the corner and don’t spin, and then this is my driving – everything focused on this. We need to find out what’s going on because I have no margin and I have no window in the car where actually I can drive it. I am a passenger.”