Kubica leaves ByKolles ahead of WEC debut

Robert Kubica has quit the ByKolles Racing team just days away from the FIA WEC opener at Silverstone, in which he was due to make his championship debut with the team in the LMP1 class driving its Nissan-powered ENSO CLM P1/01.

After testing with the team at the WEC's post-season rookie test at Bahrain in 2016, the former F1 race winner announced his move into the FIA WEC's LMP1 class with the Austrian outfit full time for 2017, though today he has called those plans off.

"I've decided to stop racing with the ByKolles team in LMP1," Kubica said in a statement on his personal Facebook page. "Therefore won't participate in the upcoming season opener at Silverstone or in other races with them.

"It was a difficult decision to resign and thus lose the opportunity to join such a demanding and strong championship, but I hope this is not a final goodbye."

This news comes after he was unable to turn a single lap during his trip to Monza with the team for the WEC's pre-season Prologue test, which ended prematurely. The team's CLM P1/01 failed to set laps in the morning and afternoon sessions on the first day, before the car had a bodywork failure during the night session while teammate Oliver Webb was in the car, forcing the team to withdraw due to lack of spares.

While no replacement for Kubica has been announced yet, a few drivers appear to be in the fray to fill his vacant seat. Dominik Kraihamer was due to test with the team at Monza, ex-F1 driver Pastor Maldonado was spotted in the garage that weekend and former ByKolles driver James Rossiter posted a video of the car testing on Instragam this week.

For 2017, ByKolles Racing is the only privateer team due to race in LMP1, following Rebellion Racing's switch to racing in the WEC's LMP2 class with a pair of Oreca 07, and in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's NAEC rounds in the Prototype division.