Robert Kubica - Could he replace Palmer in 2017?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Bottom post of the previous page:

To be honest, I dont think that will be of much surprise having seen the lack of strength and movement he has with his bad arm, at I think possibly his DTM test.. It was looking in some footage of him preparing, his arm appeared to more be an appendage rather than functional. It was IIRC almost a case of strapping his glove to the wheel. Im not sure of what duration he could race for. I guess the good part of rallying is the relative short duration of a rally stage compared to any circuit racing.

Without wanting to sound demeaning of his efforts to return to motor racing, I had thought that given a couple of promising rally outings he would have been or even appeared a little stronger, and whilst the recovery from and even survival of Robert was in doubt earlier, I had hoped that progress was greater than appears to have been the case. Early days still of course, and all our wishes for something miraculous to happen. .
I think his main challenge now would be to increase the functionality. Lets hope that he is able to achieve some sort of future in motor racing at a level that will still be of interest to him.

[caneparo]

I searched some pictures and his hand grip on the steering wheel looked better than Nannini's but not THAT much better

[Everso Biggyballies]

I searched some pictures and his hand grip on the steering wheel looked better than Nannini's but not THAT much better

here is video of his day testing, and he looks at best awkward at about a minute in to the clip as he climbs in.. Mind you having to fold yourself between the rollcage to get over to the seat , would no doubt make me, technically able bodied look awkward

[caneparo]

it went quite unnoticed but i'd like to remark that Kubica has won the WRC 2 Championship and will debut in WRC Championship at GB rally

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/110945

[kals]

That's good news for Robert. I thought he'd already competed in WRC. But maybe he'd driven WRC machinery but in a non-WRC event.

[SBan83]

I thought so too as I saw him in the rundows (usually last on page 2) during the review shows. Not sure why they were listing him in WRC scoresheets?

[caneparo]

Yes he drove WRC cars in non championship event. He has just won the WRC2 series, which is a classification for the non WRC cars which take part in the WRC events

The FIA World Rally Championship-2 or WRC-2 (formerly known as Super 2000 World Rally Championship or S-WRC), is a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, and is driven on the same stages. WRC-2 is limited to production-based cars homologated under the Super 2000, N4, R4 and R5 rules.

[Sam]

Yes, think of a class like LMP2 or (now redundant) GT2 racing in the same event, rather than GP2 or Moto2.

I thought so too as I saw him in the rundows (usually last on page 2) during the review shows. Not sure why they were listing him in WRC scoresheets?

That's because in WRC the overall championship points are awarded to top-10 finishers of the event regardless of their class. If you finish ninth in the event you get two championship points, regardless of whether you are doing a full season WRC programme or are an amateur doing a one-off in a standard Fiesta with a roll cage.

[SBan83]

Nice, I like that.

[kals]

Robert has dominated the WRC2 championship, which hopefully means he's now stopped his crash-happy nature of the past couple of seasons.

[Metzo]

he dominated because he barely had real opponents over the entire season

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_World ... ampionship

[kals]

That's true, but the point is he managed to keep his car on the tarmac and finish rallies. Something he'd struggled to do in most other outings in a rally car (this is no reference to his crash that ended his F1 career).

[Metzo]

he also had a few crashes in ERC this year

[Everso Biggyballies]

Kubica is to take part in an F1 test this week.... the first time in an F1 car since his accident. It is not a current car, rather a 2012 Lotus/Renault, and I am sure it is more a suck it and see type of run rather than a serious consideration of any return.

Kubica set for first F1 test since accident

Robert Kubica is set for his first Formula 1 test since the end of his grand prix racing career six years ago in a 2012-spec Lotus at Valencia on Tuesday.

Kubica last drove F1 machinery during an official test at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in February 2011, just days before the rally crash in Andorra that spelled the end of his stint as a top-line single-seater driver.

After making a tentative comeback to circuit racing last year, Kubica has spent recent months testing a variety of machinery, including a GP3 car at the Franciacorta track in Italy, a Formula E car at Donington Park and most recently an LMP2 Dallara for SMP Racing at Monza.

He was also set to take part in the World Endurance Championship with the ByKolles LMP1 team, but backed out of this on the eve of the opening round of the series at Silverstone.

On Tuesday, he is set to join Renault F1 test driver Sergey Sirotkin for his first seat time in a grand prix car for more than six years, driving Renault's show car, which is a Lotus E20 chassis from 2012.

[kals]

Could we see Kubica back racing in an F1 car? A few years ago I vehemently said no, Mark Hughes now suggests otherwise

Robert Kubica testing a 2012 Lotus for Renault today at Valencia represents the first time in a Formula 1 car since his rallying accident early in 2011. This a driver once dubbed by Fernando Alonso as ‘the best of us all’.

It follows on from his first single-seater tests earlier in the year – in a GP3 car at Franciacorta in Italy and a Formula E at Donington. What was significant about these earlier tests was they allowed him to assess whether the limited articulation of his injured right arm still prevented him from being able to steer within the confines of a single-seater’s cockpit. The Franciacorta circuit was chosen for the fact that it features two tight hairpins that require a lot of steering lock. Kubica was reportedly delighted to find that the arm no longer presented a problem, that it was now possible for it to function without being held out at an angle that had previously prevented it from fitting into such an enclosed space. So if it is now possible for him to properly drive a single-seater, does that beg the tantalising question of an F1 comeback? A test with a current F1 team hardly pours cold water on such an idea.

He has maintained strong links with the Enstone team for which he’d just set the fastest time in pre-2011 season testing and for which he drove in 2010. He has tested simulations of current cars on the team’s simulator over the years and has invariably been super-competitive in comparison to the regular drivers (very often significantly faster). His friend Toto Wolff went on record at the end of 2012, saying he believed that without the accident, Kubica in the 2012 Lotus (the car that was piloted by Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean) would have been world champion. It’s also now known that he had in place a Ferrari contract from 2013 to partner Alonso, agreed with the Scuderia’s then team principal Stefano Domenicali.

Is it too fanciful to suggest Kubica might have joined the Scuderia as reigning world champion? It was certainly well within the bounds of possibility.

So while the test in Valencia today – in the car tested the previous day by the team’s third driver Sergey Sirotkin – is partly a reminder of what might have been, for Kubica it is almost certainly more than that. He is a man who cannot live without competing in a car, who has zero interest in the riches it can bring or the image it can lend, and who has always pushed himself to extremes unusual even by the standards of a racing driver. If his feel for the car and the track remains unimpaired and he can physically withstand the greater forces of the 2017 cars, he will be looking for an F1 return. He is 32 years old.

Could here be a place for him? Renault is clearly interested enough to give him a very serious test. Speculation rages about whether Jolyon Palmer will get to see out this season (with Sirotkin, Pierre Gasly and Felipe Nasr all in the mix as possible short-term replacements) while others in talks with the team for 2018 include Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez. All Kubica can do is prove by the sheer force of his performances in the car that he is the best candidate.

This run in an old Lotus is far more than just a nice day out. If we next see him testing a hybrid Renault, it will be all the confirmation needed: Kubica is on the comeback trail.

[Cheeveer]

Replacing Palmer mid-season would be his golden opportunity. Minimum pressure and a friendly environment. I think all he needs to do now is too win over the skeptics (but how?) and just wait for more mistakes from Palmer.