Robert Kubica will get his first free practice outing of the year with Williams in Barcelona and the team is eager to get the Pole's feedback on its upgraded FW41.
Like its rivals, the Grove-based outfit will field an updated car at the Circuit de Catalunya for Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin.
The Spanish Grand Prix weekend follows the Canadian's points-scoring race in Baku, a positive achievement which contrasted with the team's disappointing results in the first three races of 2018.
"They say that the car that is quickest around Barcelona is generally going to be quickest at most races in the season," said Williams tech chief Paddy Lowe in the team's preview.
"It is the first race where traditionally you see many more upgrades arriving, as we are back to our truck-based logistics rather than airfreight which has seen us through the first four events.
"We are bringing a reasonably significant upgrade to this race, but probably not different to most other teams."
The opportunity to run Kubica in FP1 will also provide Williams with a valuable third opinion on its FW41, and one Lowe is looking forward to hearing.
"It’s going to be a busy weekend for us. We have Robert Kubica taking part in FP1 in place of Sergey; his first of three FP1 appearances this season," adds Lowe.
"We have a busy Friday programme and it will be interesting to get Robert’s feedback on the car. Sergey has driven many laps on this track in pre-season testing so he won’t miss out too much."
All ten F1 teams will remain in Barcelona after Sunday's race to take part in the first in-season test of 2018. Kubica will get more mileage during the two-day schedule that he will share with British hopeful Oliver Rowland.
"We also have two days of testing following the race with our Official Young Driver Oliver Rowland, and Robert," confirms Lowe.
"And we have a huge programme to fit into those two days to make progress with the development of the car."
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