Robert Kubica, Williams, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2019

Williams bring two new front wings but Kubica isn’t sure if they’ll race them

2019 Mexican Grand Prix

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Williams has brought a second example of its new front wing for this weekend’s race but Robert Kubica is still unsure whether it will be raced.

Kubica complained after the team tested the new wing on his car at Suzuka but chose not to race it. Kubica previously described the wing as a development part for the 2020 F1 season.

His team mate George Russell confirmed the team “have definitely got two here so we should be running that” in practice.

“I think it’s more useful for the aero guys than it is from my side,” Russell added, “because sat in the car there’s no real gain.

“But every time we run it there’s more data they’re learning and like I said, it’s looking pretty good into next year when we should bring [it] for next year’s car.”

Kubica, whose car will be driven by test driver Nichoals Latifi in the first practice session, said he doesn’t know whether the team will race the new wing.

Williams, Suzuka, 2019
Kubica says the new wing feels “much better”
“I don’t know, because honestly I don’t even ask,” he said. “So I think we’ll have to see what will be the situation and then drive with what we will have. I just don’t want to go too much into the details and that’s it.”

He said the car’s handling was “much better” with the new front wing, which the team did not expect.

“I think the feeling was better which was a surprise because we were not expecting that it could be better. So this was a bit strange. The feeling was much better.

“It’s strange that when you don’t expect things to be any better and then suddenly you have a much better feeling, it’s something probably something beyond this. But we’ll have to probably we’ll re-test it here and then probably we will run it I think but as I said I take it day by day as it is at a better solution.”

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8 comments on “Williams bring two new front wings but Kubica isn’t sure if they’ll race them”

  1. “He said the car’s handling was “much better” with the new front wing, which the team did not expect.”

    Well that is surprising yes. Whenever a team can stick on something that is not suppose to work and it works better than something that is suppose to work… They are way deep in trouble.

    Like last year when Ferrari developed in to a dead end. Or Haas unable to fix their tire issues. And Williams unable to fix their terminal decline.

    1. @jureo Ferrari developed into a dead end?

      The car was a cut above Mercedes in Silverstone, Hungary, Germany, Spa and Monza. That Vettel lost a lot of points in most of those races was purely his own fault.

      Then they were fastest in every practice for Singapore, but blew it in Q3. Still on the pace in the race.

      Russia, they were indeed marginally slower than Mercedes, but still fast enough to threaten Mercedes enough to panic them into swapping Bottas and Hamilton.

      Japan they were on pace, but messed up horrible in Q3 again. Vettel spun on almost every attempt and then in the race crashed into Verstappen. While Raikkonen was taken out by Verstappen. So hard to say how fast they really were (or not).

      By Mexico, they were again faster than Mercedes and USA also (Raikkonen won even).

      I know that indeed Vettel tried to blameshift away from his fails on a development issue, but when was this supposed to have happened? That one race were they were slightly off in Russia?

  2. Williams can become a second quicker next year, that how much room there is and they still will be way back last.

    I don’t know if this has come across here.
    Kubica has wanted a different layout of his steer to be more effective, this was at the start of the season.
    They said where not going to do that, thats how bad there development was.
    How low on budget they are.
    Don’t now if he will ever get a steer that gives him more confidence/comfort in a williams.

  3. Kubica the slowest driver in 20 plus years no doubt about , a rookie has made him look so slow lol

    1. thatscienceguy
      26th October 2019, 1:53

      There’s some bloke named Luca Badoer who would like a word with you.

      But yes, Kubica (and his devotees) need to admit he’s a long way off what he used to be. On the otherhand Russell is the real deal.

      1. Kubica ia slow that seems certain. But how do we know what Russel can do?

        Is he like Leclerc? Would he blow away Hamilton in the second Mercedes? We cannot know that.

        We cannot even know what would Verstappen do against Hamilton in equal car.

  4. I doubt Kubica can actually be trusted in what he’s feeling from the car. He insisted that he was driving a worse car than Russel, which was later proven not to be the case when he actually drove Russel’s car and was just as much slower as before.

    It’s sounds more like a placebo effect. He might think it’s better, because anything new “must” be better.

    I get that he had high hopes for his return to F1 and instead he’s been beaten badly by a rookie. That must hurt, but to turn around and slander the only team that was willing to give him an opportunity to try again in F1 after he was dismissed by several other teams. That’s just low.

    Just take your defeat and deal with it in a professional manner. He never could though. He’s just a horrible person.

    1. Horrible?

      You might need to get out more.

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