Williams 'looked like idiots' in Bahrain

Sergey Sirotkin has provided a scathing assessment of his team's performance in the Bahrain Grand Prix race on Sunday, insisting they "looked like idiots" in front of everyone due to their weak performance which left the Russian and Lance Stroll finish last out of the finishing drivers with no penalties.

Williams have the youngest team on the grid, and have made a poor start to collect any points in their opening two races, with Bahrain featuring particularly uneventful drives from both Sirotkin and Stroll.

The team-mates started in 18th and 20th respectively and finished in 14th and 15th, but this was due to the fact that Kimi Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo, and Max Verstappen all retired, while Sergio Perez and Brendon Hartley received penalties.

Sirotkin thinks his team would have "looked like idiots", but has attempted to remain upbeat despite the negative start to 2018.

“A tough feeling after tough weekend,” said the Russian.

“I know we looked like idiots from the outside.

“This is quite obvious to me, and probably the fact that I tried to find some positive in it will sound a bit weird, but I do see some positives.

“Partly with the learning I did as a driver, and learning we did as a team. I see some positives. Yes, we definitely looked bad in the results in the race, probably even worse than in qualifying.”

“It is better not even to think about it.”

These comments were echoed by Williams reserve driver Robert Kubica, who is in the running for the seat which Sirotkin currently holds. He thinks the pace of the car is to blame for the current underachievement.

"Our pace is simply not good enough. We could already see that we had problems during the Barcelona tests. Lance did a good job in Melbourne, but the problems have remained the same. Luckily we know what we need to work on."