Sirotkin admits he found it "difficult" to miss out on Renault seat

Sergey Sirotkin admits that he found it "difficult" to miss out the opportunity to race in F1 with Renault. The young Russian driver has worked with the French team as a development driver in the last two seasons in 2016 and 2017. 

Throughout 2017 he appeared in four free practice session as he tried to impress for the second Renault drive for this season. Unfortunately for him, he lost the opportunity to race for the French team, as they chose Carlos Sainz Jr. instead.

However, Sirotkin came into contention for a place at Williams after Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa announced his retirement at the end of 2017. Sirotkin was confirmed at Williams in January before making his first pre-season outing with the team last week at Barcelona.

"With Sauber it was not really a full focus on [an F1 seat], it came as quick as it disappeared to be honest." Sirotkin said. "I was still doing my career in World Series and GP2, and OK, it was a good opportunity, but at the end of the day it was not something I put all my life into. I was still racing and winning the racing and hitting my own targets and that’s what I was trying to continue to do. " he added

"It was a bit more difficult with Renault last year, because it was the first season I didn’t race when I was fully dedicated to the team and I worked hard for them." Sirotkin noted. 2018 will mark Sirotkin's F1 debut after being in the contention for drives at Sauber and Renault in the past. Sirotkin will be the third Russian driver to ever compete in F1 after Vitaly Petrov and Daniil Kvyat.

Paul Athes