Williams F1's Kubica has 'no race pace', baffled by gap to Russell

Kubica has finished last of the runners in each of the three races since his return to F1, winding up over 16 seconds behind team-mate George Russell at Shanghai and classified 17th.

The Williams driver feels that long-run pace was one of his strongest points during his testing in 2018.

Kubica admitted he is baffled as to why he is unable to match his team-mate on Sunday.

He said: "I think that for whatever reason since I drove the new generation cars I had to work on my single-lap pace, but on the long runs I was always very good.

"And here since I drove this car - my first long run was in Australia - but the pace is nowhere and the feeling is much worse than I ever had on long runs.

"I have no grip. I think I managed to do something in qualifying because the grip delivered by the tyres is much higher, but I cannot do the things that the guys in front are doing, or even George, so it's very strange.

"I really tried everything but when you have no grip, there's no magic in this sport."

Kubica had qualified just 0.031s behind Russell on Saturday, but his average 10 fastest laps in the race were a full second slower than the Briton.

The Polish driver says the fact he felt his race pace was very strong with last year's car makes the current situation harder to accept.

"It looks like whenever the grip is lower, or even with the colder tyre temps when you struggle with the grip, I just cannot drive the car," Kubica said.

"And it was definitely not the case last year.

"As I said, probably last year I ended up the season saying I definitely had to improve something on single-lap new tyre [pace], but one thing I was not worried at all was the race pace.

"Actually, it was one of my strongest points, but I have no race pace."

Kubica said that he could not blame the car alone for his problems on race day.

"I have no race pace against my team-mate," he said. "And when you see exiting corners you are wheel-spinning and losing the car and he's pulling away.

"I'm not saying it's the car, but there's something we have to understand. I have very poor traction and actually after the debrief George said the traction was not so bad.

"As I said, it's not only the car. There are different factors, but that's how it is."

Kubica added that his team has been unable to make consistent improvements on how the car handles every time he is on track.

"I think the car is maybe getting slightly better sometimes and slightly worse other times.

"It's track-dependent, conditions-dependent and I think we had a better pace compared to others on Friday but you don't know what they are doing.

"Ten years ago in this kind of situation, I would try to push more. Probably I would do three or four laps quicker, but then probably I would be on the gravel with worn tyres and my pace would be slower.

"I really felt like I cannot do anything. I tried many things."