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Robert Kubica has today informed Lotus Renault GP that he will not be ready for the start of the 2012 season, despite having started an intensive training programme. The Pole is still recovering from his really crash earlier this year and thereby gives the green light to LRGP to select its drivers for the 2012 campaign.
My rough translation of Mikołaj Sokół's words:
Last Thursday Robert Kubica had an successful writs operation. He may freely move his writs and elbow. The nerves however still don't allow full fingers mobility yet and nearest future will be focused on working on it.
We may expect official announcement soon concerning 2012. From my informations the prolonged rehabilitation won't forbid the return to the cockpit even if Kubica won't be ready for the beginning of the February tests. Eric Boullier has a "B plan" to sign with a driver who will step aside when Kubica is ready.
That's why the team delays announcement of its 2012 drivers and doesn't look for classy second driver. Barichello or Sutil don't have the 2012 contracts yet and Raikkonen is negotiating with inferior Williams but none of them would accept being the temporary driver. The favourite for being Pietrov's teammate in case that Kubica won't make it for the start of next season is the Grossjean, not Senna, who also wouldn't agree for such contract.
The politics of Lotus show how important is Kubica's presence. Nobody would be surprised if the team would announce now their lineup for 2012 without Kubica but the team is aware of the dynamics of the rehabilitation process after such severe, life-threatening accident. Even if everything seems to be ok the nature has unpleasant surprises which slow down the process. If the body tired of the intense rehabilitation says "I give up" then the efforts of the driver or the doctors are futile.
The driver himself and his surrounding are aware of that and that may explain the silence about Kubica's progress. It already happened that after earlier optimistic announcements they had to be corrected. That's why I understand the attitude to announce only the facts that are certain, not the prognosis, especially when it comes to the nerves regeneration. The most important thing is that the team all the time believes in Kubica and doesn't discards him as a driver.
The second extract is rather at odds with the paragraph above speculating about drivers' intentions.Barichello or Sutil don't have the 2012 contracts yet and Raikkonen is negotiating with inferior Williams but none of them would accept being the temporary driver. The favourite for being Pietrov's teammate in case that Kubica won't make it for the start of next season is the Grossjean, not Senna, who also wouldn't agree for such contract.
....
announce only the facts that are certain, not the prognosis
They won't have to. If he's not ready for the start of the season than giving him a race seat before 2013 is not a good idea. He effectively missed a whole year of driving, he missed the introduction of new tyres, new gimmicks to be fiddled with his fingers... If everything goes to the optimistic plan, I'd put him in a sim, then in a single seater for some testing during the season and into a few junior Formula races at the end of the season so that he's sharp and prepared for F1 testing in autumn where he'll have the chance to show if he still has it.raymondu999 wrote:How would they handle throwing out his temporary substitute mid season? I wonder...
Honestly I don't think the potential 'substitute' drivers have anything to worry about. Even if Robert is fully fit by mid season, even an average performance may irreparably damage his reputation. He should take his time and probably look for a new team in the meantime. +1Giblet wrote:I was hopeful but the lack of information was making it look pretty clear he was not going to make deadlines. Kubica was the key to the driver market now and will be in in 2013.
It sounds like an issue of time to recover, not if he will recover to the point of being able to drive an F1 car in proper anger.
The extremely good news from the article is it sounds like time is the only factor now for him.
Daniel Morelli told italian radio that first test with Renault(note that he's very specific in stating that it's not Lotus) will most likely be in january(vey close to what his doctors predicted).raymondu999 wrote:I heard somewhere (it could be Twitter or an article somewhere - I don't remember now) that he would be doing a few test runs in a WSR car to establish competitiveness. I'd think it would be good for him to just take a Friday role until the end of 2012. That would also allow him to practice, get up to speed, and also adapt to the tyres etc. It would also probably allow him to give his feedback on the car to the engineers on what to develop. Would refresh his memory on how to set a car up effectively too.
There is no Renault F1. Renault 2000, then Renault 3.5(WSR).raymondu999 wrote:test with Renault Sport (i.e. possibly FR2.0 or WSR), or Renault F1?