Williams has explained the issue faced by George Russell and Robert Kubica in F1 Russian GP, further clarifying the need to retire the Polish driver.
Kubica’s F1 Russian GP at Sochi Autodrom ended under strange circumstances, as the Polish driver pitted with no outside damage or issue. Post-retirement, Kubica was clueless as well, apart from only seeing that his teammate crashed into the barrier.
The viewers were scratching their heads and it appears that the Polish driver’s sponsor were equally concerned as well as PKN ORLEN chief Joanna Zakrzewska publicised the matter by tweeting her request to understand what went wrong.
“In connection with the withdrawal of Robert Kubica from the Sunday race as part of the Russian Grand Prix, we have officially asked the ROKiT Williams Racing team for clarification,” she wrote (in Polish but has been translated to English). “Based on them, we will take actions related to the enforcement of contractual obligations.”
Post-race, Williams sent out a release which mentioned of them retiring Kubica to save parts for the upcoming races, which sent out a different message. However, the team has since clarified their stance, explaining what went wrong with Russell.
They have added the need to retire Kubica as well, due to damage sustained because of the back-to-back F1 races. “We found an issue with the wheel nut retainer on George’s car, which led to the front-right wheel not sitting perfectly,” said Dave Robson. This caused a lock-up under braking. The design is very mature and well-proven.
“The remaining inventory will be inspected thoroughly, and we do not anticipate a repeat of the issue. Unfortunately, we were forced to retire Robert’s car due to the amount of accident damage we sustained in the Singapore-Russia back-to-back races in order to protect ourselves going into the next events.
“The team has worked extremely hard to ensure race quantities have improved ahead of Japan and the final races.” With all the issues the team has had so far, it is well known that the team is low on parts and can’t risk damaging them further.
With flyaways to end the year, it is preserving as much and not burning more cash. It eventually highlights the horrors for the team as they have encountered financial problems, management issues and poor on-track run for few years now.
Check out post-race story of Williams retiring Robert Kubica to save parts
Russian GP: Key statistics and information from 2019 F1 race
The story was written by Duncan Leahy and edited by Darshan Chokhani