Williams: Plastic Bag Caused Sirotkin Retirement

The rookie retired on lap 4 with a brake issue.

Sergey Sirotkin's debut in Melbourne was over after just 4 laps of the Australian Grand Prix after having to retire due to a brakes issue.

The Russian had started P19 for Sunday's race and was looking to make up ground in the opening stages but was forced to pull off the circuit with an apparent brake failure.

Williams chief technical officer, Paddy Lowe, summarised the issue as "very unfortunate"

"Our provisional analysis is that a plastic bag has been collected on the circuit, completely blocking the brake cooling, so that the right rear corner caught fire and eventually failed the hydraulics circuit.

"His brake pedal went to the floor and he had to go down the escape lane.

"That was the end of his race which is very unfortunate because it was his first F1 race and what he really needed to do was get some distance behind him so he could come back for the second event with race experience our objective, which we didn’t achieve for him today."

Sirotkin had seemed dissatisfied with his performance up to that point in the weekend and said the missed opportunity to gain vital experience in Formula One was one of the most disappointing aspects of his retirement.

"It didn’t go as expected and I’m not even talking in terms of the results, which we obviously wanted to achieve but didn’t. I’m talking about the learning, which we didn’t get. It’s a bit of a shame and I’m quite disappointed with that because it’s not ideal and it was not the easiest weekend for me," Sirotkin said.

"It was quite important to do a good race. Preparing for the Bahrain weekend, at least I know I have a good chance so we’re looking forward. In just two weeks we’ll be back at the track and we’ll work harder than ever. I’m sure we’ll get to where we deserve to be."