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Friday practice for the 2019
Bahrain Grand Prix would see both ROKiT Williams drivers slowest in the
field but there was also a marked difference in the times between George
Russell and team-mate Robert Kubica. The second session would see Robert a
second off the pace of George.
But it was not until after
practice media interviews that Robert would come out and say that he felt he
was driving a "completely different car" compared to his team-mate, even
though the pair were running close to identical set-ups.
Robert would express his concern that he could not fully understand why he
was so slow but the data coming out of the car seemed to indicate that
Robert's aerodynamic characteristics was very much different to his
team-mates.
Robert explained the situation: "At least we understood that in Australia I
ran a different set-up than George and we could clearly see the different
characteristics in the cars."
"Here we started with the same set-up and the characteristic is still
different.
"I thought in Australia that it was maybe caused by some damage to the
floor, and maybe a different set-up, but at least after the first session
here we got an answer.
"It's clear that we are driving two different cars with the same set-up, so
that is something we need to understand. It's quite obvious on the data. So
now we need to try and find the reason."
As for the issues of damage to
his floor which occurred in Australia Robert had previously thought that
floor damage could not be repaired due to a spares shortage but this was not
the case. So he felt that there was something else going on with his car,
something the team needs to address.
"I had some doubt after Australia, honestly I thought it was caused by floor
damage," he added.
"The floor is in a good state here, and still, though we are using the same
baseline set-up as the other car, we have different characteristics. It is
quite significant.
"Maybe it is something within the aero which is upsetting a lot the handling
of the car and the general grip of the car."
As for what effect these issues are having Robert explained that it made it
very difficult to push in the car.
Robert added: "It's looking strange, to be honest, and it's putting me in a
very difficult position to drive the car."
"Additionally, if I try to follow it up with some balance shift I have to
reduce the grip a lot and the potential of the car.
"Neither way is good. I make it more drivable, I am slow. I make it, let's
say, as it should be and it's undriveable. It's a very, very difficult
situation.
"I just hope that we will be able to solve it and if we are able to solve it
will probably be the first time I am driving the car with better potential.
"It's matching my feelings, and it's clearly visible on the data. There has
to be a reason, nothing happens without a reason, so we just have to have a
deep think."
As for whether the team can fix the issue Robert was confident that it will
make his car more driveable which should improve his lap times.
Robert added: "If we are able to
fix it and find those normal characteristics then the feeling will improve
and the operating window will get bigger." |
