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.
Google translateBefore the start of the 2013 season of Formula 1 Toto Wolff called the simulator responsible for the Mercedes and told him he would have to stop your program for a day , for Robert Kubica to test how and what he wanted. Wolff is a great admirer of the pole , called him for a few days holiday in the snow in January , along with Alex and Franz Wurz ( the father of the Toyota driver was European Champion Ralicross in the 70s ) and wanted to know what Kubica could do behind the wheel of a Formula 1 without limitations of space to move at will his right elbow.
Having to do the will of the ' boss ' Mercedes engineers did not like to see a working day dedicated to what they considered a whim Wolff , but how good professionals prepared the arrival of Kubica in the best way and how they were working on the set for GP of Spain, invited the pole to start their " tests " on the track on the outskirts of Barcelona.
For eight hours , almost without a break for lunch , Kubica ran the simulator , suggesting modifications to hit the W04 and when finished your day to adapt to the simulator from Mercedes , had improved the chassis in 0.3 s at a track where the Germans thought had reached the limit.
So while Kubica drove back to Heathrow, the engineers were already ask Wolff to do the pole back to Brackley when it could , because they were all admirers of his expertise and work .
So it was that , whenever I had time available on weekends Grand Prix , Kubica was heading to Brackley to test on the night of Friday to Saturday, at the origin of some of the best performances of the Mercedes in the second half of the season .
Without ever really want to open , there Kubica admitted that " we could not only simulate the tire degradation , but when we had problems , we tried a settlement that required little tire to beware of lightly team of larger problems . Moreover , this study allowed me to conclude that I can fly in almost all the tracks of Formula 1 today , but it only makes sense to think of a return when you can run it at all ! "
Yep, I agree with what you wrote. Sometimes people should go out and take a look at things rather than just reading stupid newspapers. He is far from being able to drive a F1 car, and I heard him saying (yes in real, not through medias) that he sort of did not think F1 was really good anymore. Too much tarmac runoff, no more real challenge. Rallying gives you goosebumps because it is a dangerous sport, while F1 is just some circus that is not even fast anymore.Scorpaguy wrote:Personally, I do not believe "95%".
Back in October at Rally Spain, standing about 10' from him for nearly an hour...I'd say 65-75%...tops.
I am a Kubica fan, but after that I gave up all hope of him ever returning to a F1 cockpit...and listening to him speak, I think he had too (IMHO).
Great guy though....and has a huge WRC fan base.
For sure it is faster, but the fact that you are doing 180km/h between trees on a 3m wide gravel/tarmac road is something else than doing 300km/h on an airport runway. You get my point. And I totally agree with him when he said that there is no real challenge anymore. Take Pouhon. You go there at 250km/h, fine. 260, fine. 270, you go off on the tarmac runoff, rejoin the track. Next lap, 260. I am not saying it is too easy, but these are facts.SGeorge wrote:@MadMatt, f1 is still a hell of a lot faster than a WRC car though, in comparison.......
I hope he comes back, but his injuries were terrible - I doubt he will regain sufficient mobility to drive a current car.
MadMatt wrote:For sure it is faster, but the fact that you are doing 180km/h between trees on a 3m wide gravel/tarmac road is something else than doing 300km/h on an airport runway. You get my point. And I totally agree with him when he said that there is no real challenge anymore. Take Pouhon. You go there at 250km/h, fine. 260, fine. 270, you go off on the tarmac runoff, rejoin the track. Next lap, 260. I am not saying it is too easy, but these are facts.SGeorge wrote:@MadMatt, f1 is still a hell of a lot faster than a WRC car though, in comparison.......
I hope he comes back, but his injuries were terrible - I doubt he will regain sufficient mobility to drive a current car.
I will add also that his approach to rallying is very professional, probably a legacy of his F1 experience!
SGeorge wrote:MadMatt wrote:For sure it is faster, but the fact that you are doing 180km/h between trees on a 3m wide gravel/tarmac road is something else than doing 300km/h on an airport runway. You get my point. And I totally agree with him when he said that there is no real challenge anymore. Take Pouhon. You go there at 250km/h, fine. 260, fine. 270, you go off on the tarmac runoff, rejoin the track. Next lap, 260. I am not saying it is too easy, but these are facts.SGeorge wrote:@MadMatt, f1 is still a hell of a lot faster than a WRC car though, in comparison.......
I hope he comes back, but his injuries were terrible - I doubt he will regain sufficient mobility to drive a current car.
I will add also that his approach to rallying is very professional, probably a legacy of his F1 experience!
Thats a fair point
