Kubica signals he's running out of patience at Williams

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Robert Kubica says that he's not going to wait indefinitely on Williams' decision about who to appoint as its second driver in 2019.

Williams announced this week that George Russell would be one of their drivers next season, but is yet to confirm who the Briton's team mate will be.

Lance Stroll is certain to move to Force India, with current driver Sergey Sirotkin and Force India's Esteban Ocon among a number of names in the frome for the remaining vacancy.

Kubica narrowly missed out to Sirotkin for the seat 12 months ago, becoming the team's 2018 test and development driver instead. He says that he's not willing to wait around to see history repeat itself again this year.

“Time is running [out]," he told Sky Sports F1 on Friday. "I don’t want to wait like last year. Hopefully we will get a decision earlier than it was.

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“I don’t want to find out myself in December or whenever it will be, it’s too late, and having nothing.”

The Polish driver - who suffered life-changing injuries in a rallying accident in 2011 that curtailed his Formula 1 career - said that his focus remained returning to the F1 grid.

“The target will be to be on the grid next year," he insisted. "But as I said I cannot wait until December.

“The team is evaluating different scenarios, as they are right to do," he continued. "I am doing all on my side if there will be a common agreement or not.

"But I focus on seeing also other opportunities," he warned, adding that he wanted to have something in place "in the next couple of weeks".

In his current role with the team, Kubica has taken part in two free practice 1 sessions this year. He is set to return to the cockpit once again at the end of the season in FP1 Abu Dhabi on November 23.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.