Briatore 'sorry' that Kubica is set to miss out on F1 return

Sergey Sirotkin is now the favourite to take the seat at Williams.

A few years ago Kubica was involved in an accident during a rally race which left him with part of his forearm missing, forcing him to semi-retire from motorsport.

He has since made a full recovery and has campaigned to make his professional F1 return for the 2018 season, with Williams taking him on for various test races over the course of 2017.

However, it appears Kubica is set to miss out on a seat with Williams to Russian driver, Sergey Sirotkin.

"I'm very sorry that Kubica did not manage to convince Williams," Briatore told Speed Week.

With Sirotkin now the favourite to take the seat, speculation mounts that the reason for this choice is the fact he is backed by major Russian funding, something that Kubica could not financially compete with, and Briatore is sorry that this is proving to be a deciding factor.

"Everything has been tried, but the Russian has an enormous budget," Briatore explained.

"We're talking about 20 million. Kubica could muster between seven and ten. I'm very sorry about that.

"If Robert had returned to Formula 1, it would have been a major success for the sport," he continued.

"I find it very strange that the F1 leadership did not lend him a helping hand."