Sergey Sirotkin has told of his curiosity in how Williams Martini Racing‘s upgrades will compare to the rest of the field at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The weekend traditionally marks the first wave of significant upgrades to the cars and Sirotkin is confident that Williams will be able to improve on their disappointing start to 2018, with just Lance Stroll‘s eighth place in Azerbaijan last time out keeping the team from remaining pointless.
The Russian rookie believes that the familiarity of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will hold the team in good stead, with knowledge of the FW41 gained in winter testing three months ago applicable to this weekend.
“It will be nice to be in Europe and at a track I know well as Barcelona is very familiar to us,” said Sirotkin, who has failed to score in Catalunya in his career so far.
“Barcelona is also good for the team because we did a decent amount of testing there,” he added.
“So we probably have a much better idea of the package we need to prepare for the race compared with events we’re much less experienced with.
“It’s obviously a time of the year where people bring upgrades so it will be nice to see where we are with our bits compared to what other teams bring.”
Sirotkin will not be on driving duties in Free Practice 1, with reserve driver Robert Kubica participating in his first official Grand Prix weekend since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2010.
