Sergey Sirotkin insists his Williams Martini Racing team need to remain positive despite the Russian ending his debut Qualifying session in Formula 1 early after being eliminated in Q1 for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Russian, who was the final driver to be confirmed to race this season in place of the retired Felipe Massa, was more than four-tenths of a second down on team-mate Lance Stroll on Saturday afternoon, and whereas the Canadian made it through to Q2, Sirotkin was left down in nineteenth, ahead only of Pierre Gasly.
Sirotkin feels there could have been more performance to find from the FW41 during the session, particularly if he looks to the other side of the garage, but the idea now is to gain experience this weekend and make the most of his debut Grand Prix.
“There were big changes between the sessions,” said Sirotkin. “For sure I think we could have squeezed more out of the car, but it’s the beginning of a very long season so we should just analyse a bit more, analyse what we could do better and go onwards.
“We need to be positive. We try to learn step by step and move forwards.”
