Sirotkin to ‘investigate’ possible Williams F1 reserve role

Sergey Sirotkin says he’ll assess all future options including a potential reserve role at Williams after losing his Formula 1 race seat to Robert Kubica for 2019.

The Russian F1 rookie says he was shocked and saddened to be told he had lost his race seat for next year to current reserve driver Kubica having felt he had progressed strongly over his maiden campaign with a car which has been the slowest on the grid.

With the majority of F1 opportunities already taken for 2019, Sirotkin is scrambling for his next move but is eager to assess any options including staying with Williams in a reserve role – despite his Russian backers SMP claiming they instigated Sirotkin’s Williams exit.

“I’m more than happy to sit down and see the opportunities because I dedicated all the year to be part of the team and to improve all I could with the team,” Sirotkin said. “I’m so sad I won’t see the result of all of that hard work I did, and we all did as a group of people.

“So if it would be an opportunity to stay here with some hopes for the future I will for sure investigate it.

“From the last week onwards I kind of pretty much knew it’s going to happen, so yeah, I still can’t believe. It’s still very tough for me, but still very expected.”

“For me as a racing driver I didn’t care about it at all, all that I cared was to be on the grid, whatever the car is, to do the best job I can, the best job for myself and the best job for the team.

“I always wanted to race for sure, I’m a pure racing driver, but it’s a package of things. It was a few questions there let’s say.”

Kubica will make a dramatic F1 comeback with Williams in 2019 eight years on from his horrific rallying crash, in which he suffered a partially-severed right forearm, that initially looked to have ended his career in the sport.

The Polish driver will teammate British rookie George Russell at Williams, stepping up from the reserve role he has held this year, with the third driver role now vacant.

Claire Williams confirmed an announcement on the team’s reserve driver for 2019 will be made next week.