. This is the next chapter of the agreement in force from January 2020, according to which the Polish company is the title sponsor of Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen. And still with Robert Kubica as the test driver of the Italian team.
in an interview with Michał Gąsiorowski in “Radio 357” he talked about the hardships of last season,. – It was not an easy task. It is even difficult to describe them. I didn’t drive on Friday. The team found out about Kimi’s situation on Saturday morning. I got in a car on a track I didn’t know. If we were racing in Bahrain, the task would be several times or a hundred times easier. I myself do not feel very well in this year’s car, which made the task even more difficult. Someone who does not train has a problem to quickly return to fast driving. It’s as if a tennis player puts his racket aside for a few months and got a completely different racket from what he was used to and had to play the final of some big tournament. I did what was in my power – summed up Kubica.
A week later, the task was just as difficult. Kubica started the race at Monza, where he also had to deal with the new weekend format, the sprint race. – I’m not a fan of this format. This is a show and everyone’s focus is on improving this show. But Formula 1 is a technical sport. This format takes pleasure in working with engineers, working on improving the car over the weekend. Settings are frozen after one session. At Monza, we had a problem with the suspension that came out during qualifying. It resulted from the setup and I had to drive with such a car all weekend, which was not easy – he described the start in the Italian GP.
Kubica: I was surprised myself how much it hurt
Before that, however, Robert Kubica had competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours race. The Polish driver could go down in history by winning the debut. On the last lap of the race, his car crashed, destroying the chances of success. The Pole himself admitted that he felt the defeat in the legendary race very much.
– I was surprised myself how much it hurt. I have had moments when I was losing my last race winnings to a crash. I don’t remember that it hurt so much. I figured it’s because Le Mans only comes once a year. There are several races in Formula 1, the next one is in two weeks. In F1 you don’t become “hero to zero”, someone who could prove a historic result. Winning my debut at Le Mans would be something special, not only for me. This is the most important race of the year, it is kind of like the Olympics for motorsport. That’s why it hurt so much, because you know that only in 12 months you will have a chance to bite back. It also hurt because you have to “survive” these 24 hours first – emphasized Kubica.
In an interview with Michał Gąsiorowski, Robert Kubica also returned to the time of his return to racing after the accident in Ronde di Andora in 2011. The Polish driver revealed that he returned to driving earlier than it would appear from unofficial media reports.
– I drove many times after an accident, when no one knew about it yet. I got behind the wheel for the first time at 5 am. All so that no one knows about it. Not because I was afraid of something. I just needed this test in a quiet environment. You can always close the track, but someone will come to watch anyway. Back then, I had the greatest improvement in rehabilitation. This showed that the head plays a great role in rehabilitation, because limits are created in the head and are not our actual limits – described Kubica.
Kubica: The doctor was not even able to imagine it
However, as he admitted, even doctors were surprised by the results of Kubica’s rehabilitation. – After my first F1 car tests in 2017, I was sent to a clinic where all of me was “tested”. The doctor present there couldn’t even imagine how I was doing it all. According to him, it was impossible. The tests showed that my left hand is even 30-35 percent. faster, more agile and more precise than the best hand he has ever seen. Until then, I hadn’t even thought about it. My limitations of my right hand made my left hand much more agile and precise – betrayed Kubica.
Robert Kubica was also asked about the legendary lap of qualifying for the 2010 Japanese GP. The boss of Renault then said that Kubica got out of the car completely pale, as if he had seen a ghost. – I don’t know what happened on that lap. The reaction of my body, my head, was strange. In qualifying we had a problem with the car, with the rear diffuser. The mechanics were repairing the floor during qualifying. I mean, they sealed holes in the floor as it began to separate. It was an extreme lap. But in the Renault car, I often did extreme things, thanks to the car, which was not the fastest in the paddock, but was very easy to drive for me and gave me great opportunities – said the Polish driver.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
