Sirotkin wants to see end results of Williams’ F1 recovery bid

Sergey Sirotkin feels it would be “logical’ to remain with Williams beyond this season to see out the team’s recovery bid, with his Formula 1 future unclear.

The Russian has endured a difficult rookie campaign during a torrid season in which Williams has slipped to the bottom of F1’s pecking order, having scored a combined total of just seven points in 2018.

Sirotkin was expected to be retained for next year but it is understood both Williams seats could be up for grabs in 2019 as it continues to evaluate its driver-line up options.

Lance Stroll is set to depart for Force India after his father led a consortium takeover of the team. Esteban Ocon, who is set to lose out on his seat to Stroll, has been one of a number of drivers linked to the British squad, along with Formula 2 championship leader George Russell.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, Sirotkin admitted he is still waiting for news about his future.

“It seems more than logic to finish what we started to do and see actually the pure results of the work we did so far together, so I mean maybe I don’t know, something, is not fully agreed yet,” he added.

“We were doing quite a good job to recover where we’ve been. Many times I spend - honestly too much time - you know, trying to get the things sorted, which obviously were much more long-term than short-term thinking.

“So I just see it much more than logical to get to the end together and see the results of the work we did together.

“I don’t have any more confirmation, maybe I don’t know it, I’m not even asking too much. I’m not in a position where I’m asking every day what is the situation. I find it quite logical and have enough trust in it.”

Sirokin believes Williams’ progress throughout 2018 has been significant despite a continued struggle for on-track results and feels the team can be proud of the work it has done.

“I think it’s [the car] quite a lot faster,” Sirotkin explained. “It’s still very much track and weather related, but if you put our car now in Melbourne I’d say you’d see it in Q3. The only thing is the other people are progressing as quick as we did.

“I think with the effort we made to recover from where we’ve been, even if we didn’t exactly achieve what we wanted, we can be proud of the work and the effort we did.

“For sure we didn’t match our expectations,” he added. “We all expected to be much higher and expected to be performing in a very different end of the field to what we are, but again the last thing you wanted to do is to enter and see how difficult it is and give up.

“I think we already made such a big effort that I don’t feel it’s any logical to kind of stop at the point where you already did so much of the hard work without getting to the point of seeing the results of it.”