Formula 1: Should Williams replace Robert Kubica?

Should ROKiT Williams Racing replace the struggling Robert Kubica before the 2019 Formula 1 season reaches its conclusion?

One of the biggest storylines heading into the 2019 Formula 1 season was the return of Robert Kubica, who had not competed in Formula 1 since the 2010 season after he was severely injured in a rally crash in 2011. He was slated to drive for Scuderia Ferrari in the 2012 season had this crash not taken place.

This past November before the 2018 season ended, the 34-year-old Pole was confirmed as one of ROKiT Williams Racing’s two drivers for the 2019 season. Mercedes junior driver, 2017 GP3 Series champion and 2018 Formula 2 champion George Russell had already been confirmed as the other.

But five races into the 21-race 2019 season, Kubica has struggled mightily. While a lot of this can be pinned on the fact that Williams have had a historically disastrous start to the 2019 season, he has not even beat Russell yet — at all. He has finished in last place in every single qualifying session and every single race so far this season among the drivers who have actually finished the races.

Should the Grove-based team replace Kubica before the 2019 season ends?

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Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly is the only other driver who has not yet beaten his teammate in any qualifying session or race so far this season, and he has been the subject of replacement rumors since immediately after the season opener, which was only his first race driving for the Milton Keynes-based team.

While it would make sense for Williams to move on from arguably one of the biggest underperformers through the season’s first five races, replacing Kubica would be more trouble than it is worth for the team at this point.

Russell has clearly outperformed his teammate in pretty much every metric through the season’s first five races, but Williams have far bigger issues than their driver lineup.

First of all, anyone who knows anything regarding anything about Formula 1 knows that Russell is an extremely talented driver who has potential future world champion written all over him, especially given the rumors that he may end up being promoted to Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport ahead of the 2021 season, rumors that were started by none other than five-time champion and current Mercedes driver and driver standings leader Lewis Hamilton.

Williams’ driver lineup “issue” is effectively which driver they want finishing in 19th place and which driver they want finishing in 20th. Hamilton couldn’t get top 18 speed out of their cars. Ayrton Senna couldn’t get top 18 speed out of their cars.

They could replace Robert Kubica with anyone (or anything), and the car would still rack up zero points for the team this season — just like Russell will.

Just like Tom Brady and LeBron James will.

And given just how talented Russell is and the fact that he has not truly had the opportunity to display it yet, is Kubica really doing all that poorly?

Of course, if he truly is, Williams may find it more beneficial to make a more talented driver, likely a younger driver, the teammate to the promising Russell, as it could become a bigger challenge for him and help to further assess his development in a season where the ceiling on the ability to assess his development is currently hard for a cat to squeeze under.

Kubica is a veteran, but he hasn’t competed in the sport since the 2010 season, so it isn’t like Kimi Raikkonen or somebody is the team’s veteran presence that is constantly providing top-notch feedback to race engineers in regard to what and how to improve.

But is it really worth the hassle to replace him at this point with still so much uncertainty and struggling going on from top to bottom within the team in pretty much every area aside of Russell’s talent?

Should Williams move on from Robert Kubica before the 2019 Formula 1 season ends? If so, with whom should they replace him? If not, should they retain him for the 2020 season as well?