Williams in doubt to make first pre-season test

Williams in doubt to make first pre-season test

Originally written by Joas van Wingerden. This version is a translation.

Wednesday 13 February 2019 10:12

Williams' car might not be ready for the start of winter testing next week, with the team having abandoned a filming run, scheduled for this weekend, just two days ahead of the first pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

On Tuesday, Renault 'launched' a newly liveried and modified version of its 2018 car, with boss Cyril Abiteboul saying the 2019 machine is still "in pieces".

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Williams confirmed in a statement that a planned run on Saturday had been cancelled in order to give the team as much time as possible to put their 2019 challenger together.

"As anyone would expect, we have had an extremely aggressive engineering programme over the winter," deputy team principal Claire Williams is quoted as saying.

You've only got one life. ROKiT. pic.twitter.com/o0l4sBLfcn — ROKiT WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) February 11, 2019

"As such, we have taken the decision not to run our car during our filming day this weekend in order to allow the team to maximise the time at the factory before we head to Barcelona for the first day of the test on February 18th."

Williams' 2019 car might also be delayed, according to Polish media sources.

Sport.pl, which is closely tracking Robert Kubica's return to F1, quoted an FIA-accredited engineer as saying: "I do not have good news. Williams is very late with the construction of the car."

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