Kubica's Recovery

[Hangaku]

I think that you are vastly underestimating the physical requirements of driving even a modern F1 car. Do you think you could drive a go kart with limited flex in your elbow, let alone wrist or shoulder?

As it stands at this time, Kubica is having trouble even walking, and yet here are a bunch of fans claiming he'll be driving in F1 before the end of the season. You lot are either harsh or plain nuts!

[bot6]

I'm certainly not claiming he's going to come back to F1 before the end of the season. As much as I wish that to be the case, as that would mean an incredible recovery for Robert and that's really the best thing anyone can wish for him, I don't think that will be the case.

But I do think he can come back next season. The doctors seem confident the nerve repairs in the shoulder and hand will come back to 100% eventually, which leaves the elbow. And I do think that in a modern F1 car, the neck, shoulders and wrists are taking much more punishment than the elbow, and that the presence of power steering will also help.

[rsist]

Coulthard on kubicas challenge, from BBCSport
"Hand grip and lower-arm strength are very important in a grand prix car because your body is strapped very firmly into the chassis.

The real skill of the driver is in how delicate he can be with his feet and how precise and reactive he can be with his hands.

I don't know specifically what injuries Robert has suffered but as an absolute minimum he needs to be able to have the motor skills and strength to grip the steering wheel at high loads - cornering forces in a grand prix car are up to 5G - and make the fine adjustments needed to control it.

The cars have power steering, but you need a lot of endurance strength to keep hold of the wheel over race distance. Your hands do fatigue, and if you're heading into a high-speed corner, you squeeze the wheel before you commit to the corner.


It's not like he's doing a strength test hanging off a pole over a pool of piranhas and hand strength can vary from individual to individual. However he certainly needs to have the strength to push into the steering wheel to hold himself in place in high-speed corners.

That was a technique I used. I'd lean my elbow on the side of the cockpit and use that as a sort of leverage anchor point.

You would force your thumb and hand up into the steering wheel to lock it into position, because making small adjustments to the steering at 160mph through a corner like Spa's Pouhon is extremely difficult to do.

That's because there is so much movement within the tyre and the car itself, you just want to get it on to the right trajectory. If you need to make a small adjustment it would be with the throttle so, in the high-speed corners, it's about committing and holding on. The big steering inputs come in the medium and slow-speed corners, where it's about being able to feel what the car is doing and being able to make those fine adjustments.

You hold the car in the palm of your hand, the fingers are there to maintain the hand in place and it's the sense of load on your hand that's important.

You need to be able to feel the weight of the steering, because that becomes a guide as to how much grip there is.

When you're controlling the car on the limit, there will be a feeling in your hands and arms; you expect it to feel a certain weight.

If you hit a patch of oil, say, that steering weight reduces significantly and even before the car has started to understeer or oversteer you have started to make a correction.

A racing driver also needs his finger tips for adjusting the knobs and dials on the steering wheel and pulling the gear-change paddle - although there is nothing in the regulations that says it has to be knobs and dials and a paddle, it could be any kind of mechanism that the driver uses to initiate a gear change.

If Robert's able to hold a reasonable weight out front of his body and rotate and move it around at arms' length, I'm sure he'll be able to get back into a race car and do his thing.

He'll need a lot of determination to make a comeback, but he has already proved he's got plenty of that.

[ringo]

The grip strength of the hand is directly connected to the elbow. I think most of the forearms tendons are connected near to the elbow.
Ever knocked your elbow on a piece of furniture and you lose all strength and get a numb feeling in your hand momentarily?

Elbow injuries or chronic elbow problems from overuse can affect more than just the elbow joint. Elbow problems can adversely affect grip strength too. Even shaking hands can be painful. Elbow pain can extend up to the shoulder and down to the wrist. Many elbow problems caused by inflammation to the tendons will also worsen with turning forces;

Add 5g's to this and i think it's best Kubica avoid playing superman and jumping in a car this year ie if he recovers without any permanent debilitation.

[Mr Alcatraz]

+1
It's lunacy for him to turn an F1 wheel in anger this season.
Next season if ever I'm afraid to say. I wish him a complete recovery, but I don’t think that is likely. He simply broke, and tore too many parts. I hope he gets back into F1, but I seriously doubt he will achieve the potential and the ultimate success he would have had without the crash. I hope I'm wrong

[i70q7m7ghw]

The grip strength of the hand is directly connected to the elbow. I think most of the forearms tendons are connected near to the elbow.
Ever knocked your elbow on a piece of furniture and you lose all strength and get a numb feeling in your hand momentarily?

You're talking about the ulnar nerve, nothing to do with tendons. The numb feeling from knocking your elbow is often referred to as hitting your 'funny bone', it's actually where you hit the nerve at a point where it's a bit more vunerable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulnar_nerve

I hadn't read about any nerve damage caused by the accident, let's hope he escaped without any.

[volarchico]

Not only do we have Wikipedia aerodynamicists on this forum but also Wikipedia doctors!

[Giblet]

The tendons in your elbow are attached to your muscle ends with 'filaments' where it fans into the muscle end.

I know this as I had a large piece of glass (just 75 lbs no big deal) attempted to remove my arm from my body at the elbow. Even though I had a large cleave of less severity than Robert's I am sure, it was still severe.

As for the tendon, the filaments on the outside edge of my forearm right below my elbo had the edge of the sharp glass raked across the filaments and muscle.

It took me 3 months before I was able to carry a coffee in that hand, but after that three months, the physio starts really working and the strength starts returning in very noticeable numbers.

The one I had severed is that which gives me sensation in m forearm. That area of sensation loss is the whole top half of my forearm form elbow to wrist. If I had gone any deeper, I would have a limp hand at then end of my arm I was unable to control. I suspect Robert's injury was deeper, and he may have had that nerve severed.

After a large injury like this, usually the last round of surgeries is to repair nerves so the patient can get mobility back.

Once the next couple of months are over, we should start getting real news and results about his recovery. In a couple of weeks I suspect he'll do an interview or release statements personally. We know Robert is strong mentally, but this kind of accident really plays hard on the psyche. I still can't look at pictures from my accident for more then a few seconds, and has given me an unnatural fear of unbroken glass. I hope Robert can get over all his more serious hurdles than I had to deal with.

[andrew]

Can we change the thread title? I believe he is out of hosptial now.

It's fantastic that Kubica is on the mend but the worst thing to do would be to rush his recovery so he can get back into racing. If he makes a full recovery I think it will be 2012 before he is racing in F1 if at all. To come back this year would be sheer lunacy, but understandable lunacy.

It's all "ifs" and "buts" at the moment I guess.

[Giblet]

Will do. Kubica's Recovery it is.

[Giblet]

Not only do we have Wikipedia aerodynamicists on this forum but also Wikipedia doctors!

Wiki is for Chiropractors! Real armchair doctors like myself use Google Body

http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/body. ... s:;c:0;o:0

I didn't spend 8 years in imaginary med school to be called Mr.

[govind112]

hes not out yet, hes coming out in 10 days then hes going back to his house in monaco

[govind112]

I think that you are vastly underestimating the physical requirements of driving even a modern F1 car. Do you think you could drive a go kart with limited flex in your elbow, let alone wrist or shoulder?

As it stands at this time, Kubica is having trouble even walking, and yet here are a bunch of fans claiming he'll be driving in F1 before the end of the season. You lot are either harsh or plain nuts!

yes but if your arm, hand and leg has been in a cast for a month or 2 its going to be hard to walk and ur bound to be abit rigid?

[bot6]

Wiki is for Chiropractors! Real armchair doctors like myself use Google Body

An armchair doctor? Isn't that called a psychiatrist?

Back to the topic, according to the statements issued Robert had mobility and sensitivity in his fingers and hand after the surgery, and the docs (the real ones) said the nerve and tendon repair went well, so hopefully Robert will not have any permanent damage as far as grip is concerned.

[andrew]

Wiki is for Chiropractors! Real armchair doctors like myself use Google Body

An armchair doctor? Isn't that called a psychiatrist?

No. An armchair doctor is an upholsterer.