After months of waiting and debating over which driver will race on the Williams team in 2018, they have finally announced their driver lineup for the season, although we’ve already known who it was going to be for some time.
The Canadian Lance Stroll is under contract for team in 2018, but it was up in the air as to which driver was going to race alongside of him. Felipe Massa finally called in quits, having postponed his retirement last season to fill the empty spot left by Valtteri Bottas.
Robert Kubica was the fan favourite for the seat, but Paul di Resta, Pascal Wehrlein, Daniil Kvyat and Sergey Sirotkin were other names that were mentioned for the seat. In the end, Williams has chosen Sirotkin. This will make the Williams lineup the second more inexperienced lineup on the grid, second only to Toro Rosso who will be running two rookies.
Sirotkin has racing experience in Formula 3, Formula Renault and GP2, although he has never won a championship title in any of those disciplines. He joined Formula One in 2014, serving as the test driver for Sauber. He returned in 2016 and 2017 with Renault as test driver. He made for outings for a free practice session in 2017.
Despite not being picked for the primary driving seat with the team, Robert Kubica has not be left out to dry. He will serve as the team’s test driver for the team. The team has agreed to allow Kubica plenty of seat time in pre-season testing, in-season testing and numerous free practice sessions during the race weekend.
“My ultimate goal remains to race again in Formula One and this is another important step in that direction: I cannot wait to get started,” said Kubica, expressing his desire to one day return to the driver seat fulltime.
