©WRI2
Robert Kubica appears to have passed his ultimate evaluation test with Williams with flying colors, but the team's second seat is still up for grabs insists tech boss Paddy Lowe.
Kubica fulfilled his testing duties with the Grove-based outfit in Abu Dhabi this week, performing well and with no physical worries as he shared the driving in Yas Marina with Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin.
Lowe reiterated Williams' stance however, saying the team is in no hurry to name Stroll's 2018 team mate and insisted its list of contenders goes beyond the drivers it tested in Abu Dhabi.
"We'll take the decision at the time we are ready," said Lowe.
"When we have all the information and we are ready to declare it.
"The drivers we brought to this test doesn't mean that it's the drivers under consideration for racing next year.
"This was a tyre test, which is an opportunity to look at two different drivers as well as for Lance to look at the new tyres. That was the purpose.
"Of course it gives us more information about drivers, but it's not setting a definition from the pool from which we will pick race drivers."
Other contenders for the coveted Williams drive include Paul di Resta, Pascal Wehrlein and Dany Kvyat.
Kubica was the quickest of the Williams drivers in Abu Dhabi, but given the variance in track conditions and tyres, Lowe refused to comment the Pole's performance.
"I'm not gonna talk about speed," he said at the end of the test.
"It's a complicated topic. I'm sure you want me to give some answers about that but it's not something we are not going to discuss.
"It's a really complicated topic, performance and speed, so to read a timesheet is quite misleading, so I'm not gonna talk about that. We haven't even analysed it for ourselves."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Toto Wolff has obviously had a front-row seat to Kimi Antonelli’s remarkable rise – one…
Lando Norris delivered a blunt assessment of McLaren’s declining competitiveness after Sunday’s disappointing United States…
Oliver Bearman, Haas (DNF) – 3/10 A thoroughly miserable afternoon for the young Briton in…
F1 fans witnessed a dramatic season finale on this day in Adelaide in 1986 when…
Lewis Hamilton believes a set-up error on his Ferrari that instilled “massive” understeer made life…
Fernando Alonso delivered a stinging verdict on the quality of racing at the back of…