Robert Kubica feels the Williams Martini Racing FW41 has some ‘powerful areas’, but there is still some areas of work needed for the car to be competitive as the Pole got his first official run in it on Tuesday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Kubica gave the car a shakedown at Motorland Aragon just prior to the first official pre-season test, and took over driving duties from Sergey Sirotkin for the afternoon session on Tuesday, setting the seventh fastest time, just ahead of the Russian.
The difficult conditions in Spain, which saw extremely low temperatures and the odd flurry of snow, meant running was more limited to what Williams were hoping they would be, but Kubica had positive comments to make about the FW41.
“I think we have achieved the maximum we could do due to the weather and general track temperatures,” said Kubica. “I got my first feeling for the car, and saw what we were able to do in difficult conditions.
“It is not easy to jump into a new car with such difficult weather conditions and have the confidence to push, but I think we did some important work, although it was short. However, it gave us, and especially myself, an idea of how to work better for the future to address some areas where we can improve the car.
“The car has some very powerful areas, but, in the meantime, we need to work on some issues which I am sure we will get on top of. If we do that then the driveability, and also the confidence of the driver will be higher.”
