Robert Kubica to make Alfa Romeo F1 debut in Styrian GP FP1

Robert Kubica will make his race weekend debut with Alfa Romeo at the Styrian Grand Prix after being confirmed for an FP1 appearance.

The Polish driver made the switch to Alfa Romeo from Williams over the winter to become its test and reserve driver in support of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi.

As part of a deal that brought Polish oil giant Orlen on board as the team’s title backer, Kubica will get a handful of FP1 outings this season beginning with this weekend’s second visit to the Red Bull Ring.

“I am looking forward to returning to action this weekend, especially after the long break the whole world of motorsport had to observe," he said. "My objective, as always, is to provide as much data as possible for our engineers and to give them my feedback from within the cockpit.

"This weekend will be quite a new experience for everyone, racing in the same venue we were on just a few days ago, so it will be a matter of refining all the data we collected over the course of the Austrian Grand Prix and testing the adjustments we want to make to the cars.”

Kubica, who scored one point on his return to F1 competition with Williams in 2019, will drive the Alfa Romeo C39 in the place of Giovinazzi.

Alfa Romeo enjoyed a point-scoring start to the 2020 F1 season with Giovinazzi finishing ninth up from 18th position on the grid, though team-mate Raikkonen was denied a top ten finish when he lost a wheel in the closing stages of the race.