Kubica Announces Departure From Williams At Season End

[Paul Jeffrey]

During the build-up for this weekends Singapore Grand Prix, Robert Kubica has announced his intention to step down from his Williams race seat at the end of the current season.

Despite overcoming significant injuries sustained in a rally accident back in 2011, Kubica completed a fairy tale return to the top level of motorsport with Williams for the new season, inking a one year deal to line up on the grid eight years on from his last F1 start with Renault, at the season closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2010.

Having established himself as one of the stars of the sport during his first F1 career, the sport has been less kind to the popular Polish racer in 2019, with the 33-year-old often struggling to match his rookie team mate despite scoring the only point of the season for Williams at Hockenheim earlier season.

With no sign of any improvement in pace for the struggling driver, Kubica has taken the decision to call time on his Formula One career in search of "other opportunities" within the motorsport world. Recent weeks have seen the driver linked with potential drives in the German / European DTM series, and of course Kubica has already flirted with endurance racing prior to his top flight return at the start of this season.

“I would like to thank the team for the last two years and for helping make my comeback to the Formula One grid possible" said Kubica of his decision. "I have enjoyed my time with ROKiT Williams Racing, both as Reserve & Development Driver and as a Race Driver this year, but I feel that the time is now right for me to move on to the next chapter in my career.”​

Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal of ROKiT Williams Racing added: “I would like to thank Robert for his hard work and respect his decision to leave the team at the end of the 2019 season. Robert has been an important member of the team in both his role as Reserve & Development Driver, and subsequently as one of our Race Drivers in 2019. We thank him for his continued efforts throughout what has been a challenging couple of seasons and wish him well in his future endeavours.”​

Whatever the popular Pole decides to do next year, you can be sure he'll bring an army of fans along for the ride.

Like what we do at RaceDepartment? Follow us on Social Media!

 

 

[snyperal]

Surprising no one.

Such a shame though.

 

[EduCalza]

He stayed out from F1 for long time...in first season after return in a weak car, there's nothing he can do, I'm sorry for he.

 

[Koen Verlinde]

Is anyone actually surprised by this?

 

[Andrew Harper]

In some ways really difficult to measure how well he did.

The current Williams car is just a very mixed bag to say the least. It has more or less the best engine on the grid, but the car is just very poor. Although well done to the team for closing the gap as much as they have.

I was always confused when he signed for the team, he always made it clear he was only interested in a competitive drive, podiums, wins, and so on. He tested for GT, LMP and so on and then decided on a F1 team that was struggling.

Anyway, he's had a tough year and in my view he's delivered with the kit he had at his disposal.

Wishing him all the best. Really hope he signs for WEC maybe. LMP2 (or even hypercar). WEC has lost some big names recently and a well loved F1 driver joining the line-up would be a great boost in my view as well as allowing him some chance of a decent result.

 

[Contra 710]

Make way for the latifi hype train! cant wait to see two solid rookies in a hopefully better than haas car next year.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Is anyone actually surprised by this?

No I don't think so. He wanted a competitive car and didn't get one. Not even remotely. To go to the first grand prix and be three seconds a lap off the slowest car is just cruel.

Is he slow? Honestly difficult to tell with such a bad car. If you don't have confidence in the car you are driving you will suffer. Russell has obviously done a great job this year so in that comparison you could say yes Robert is past his prime and it's time to move on or stop. However having seen the incredible hostility to Russell (and the team) by his followers on social media I'll be careful what I say! lol

I am a Williams fan (I think most of us are) but the team is just in a mess and I think it will take many years before they are back to where they belong, but with the level of manufacturer involvement now I'm not sure that will happen.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Make way for the latifi hype train! cant wait to see two solid rookies in a hopefully better than haas car next year.

Here's a suggestion for you....Jamie Chadwick. Her name keeps being mentioned, you could argue she's not ready for F1 but if the budget was there who knows? I bet the media will be pushing that one like crazy.

 

[Contra 710]

Here's a suggestion for you....Jamie Chadwick. Her name keeps being mentioned, you could argue she's not ready for F1 but if the budget was there who knows? I bet the media will be pushing that one like crazy.

i would give her a year in f2 but yeah i would love to see that. She does not have anywhere near the experience in openwheels yet

 

[Tylda]

Make way for the latifi hype train! cant wait to see two solid rookies in a hopefully better than haas car next year.

Latifi will be even worse than Palmer and that's an achievment.

 

[Dux]

Surprised not.
Hulkenberg in his place that will surprise me

 

[Mr Latte]

It was not to be Robert, must be hard for him with what happened and what perhaps could of been.

 

[Jan Larsen]

Being demolished by his rookie teammate is embarrasing. It seems the old Kubica speed is gone so it was entirely predictable this would happen. A shame though.

Williams, ffs, this time, PLZ choose a decent driver. You've only managed this once for many years now (Russell).

 

[billymitchell]

Being demolished by his rookie teammate is embarrasing.

I think you need to double check the points standings:

19. Kubica - 1 pts
20. Russell - 0 pts



But yeah no surprise the kid is faster, he doesn't know how an F1 car should handle, so he's adapting better.

 

[Bazooka_Joe]

At least he proved he's still good enough that he could find his way back to F1 and that after such severe accident it's still worth fighting for it.
He'll be better off in other more competitive series when given a car that's on-par with the rest of the pack rather than in FW42 dissapointment.
Well done Robert and whatever you decide to do in the future - good luck!

 

[Ghoults]

Williams being as hopeless as they are it is no surprise that the weaker of the williams drivers is out of F1 race seat come the end of season. (As is tradition.) Had it been kubica at Racing point and losing against perez I think people would have given him more leeway because it is still a competitive team. But because of how poor the car is it is really difficult to see kubica's season as anything else than a failure given that he tends to finish last which gives the impression of he being the worst driver of the season.

Perception matters as much as actual results and in a williams both of those factors are going to look poorly on you. In a williams he is always going to finish dead last unless he can beat his team mate... which he never looked able to do on pace on this season. Which reflects worse on him than it does on drivers like gasly and giovanazzi. Both of which have been totally obliterated by their team mates.

Ever since his rally crash I have wanted to see him back in F1 car. Sad that his comeback did not work out and he did not have the pace. But at the same time with these results he doesn't deserve to be in F1. Unless you bring lots of money or buy a team it is hard to stay in F1 with these kinds of results.

Here's a suggestion for you....Jamie Chadwick. Her name keeps being mentioned, you could argue she's not ready for F1 but if the budget was there who knows? I bet the media will be pushing that one like crazy.

Looking at her F3 results she has no business being in F1 unless she can do well in F2 and prove herself.

 

[Jan Larsen]

I think you need to double check the points standings:

19. Kubica - 1 pts
20. Russell - 0 pts



But yeah no surprise the kid is faster, he doesn't know how an F1 car should handle, so he's adapting better.

Haha, well fair enough, but I'm judging from the qually stats

 

[RufGTI]

According to motorsport.com Kubica could drive in DTM next season.

 

[Medilloni]

Looking at her F3 results she has no business being in F1 unless she can do well in F2 and prove herself

^^This^^
Race, religion, sex be damned, F1 is 'supposed' to be the pinnacle of motorsport - there's only room for 24-ish drivers and they've got to be the very best, anything else is a gimmick.

 

[Mr Latte]

Williams should not of fired Paddy Lowe, they should of forced him to drive the car all season