Kubica Wins on Comeback
2014 F1 return for injured Lotus-Renault star?
Driving a Subaru Impreza WRC car, Kubica won each of the four stages in the Rally Ronde di Lana Gomitolo, to triumph by nearly a minute over runner up Omar Bergo who was driving a WRC MINI. So, as comebacks go, it was pretty comprehensive, and is seen by Kubica as a major step in his recuperation.
Lest we forget, it was back in February last year that the 27 year old Pole suffered his horrific accident while driving a Skoda Fabia S2000 car in – ironically – another round of the Rally Ronde, the Andora event. He thus missed the entire 2011 F1 season and, as a result, is out of contract with his former Lotus-Renault team (who apparently now have little contact with him).
His recovery has, at times, sounded painfully slow, not helped by reportedly breaking his right leg again in January after falling on ice at home.
But Kubica is apparently still planning on an F1 return, targeting 2014 to get back behind the wheel. “The goal is to return to Formula 1 in 2014,” he told Sky Sports Italy. "I'm here because I wanted to experience the adrenaline of the race. Now (I will) do this rally, then to San Martino di Castrozza and then we'll see”
The Castrozza event takes place this coming weekend, and Kubica will also reportedly take part in a series of four tests to further assess progress. Apparently, the 2008 Canadian GP winner admitted he’ll probably never be at the same physical level as before (onlookers said movement in his right arm appeared visibility limited, and that he held the winners’ trophy with his left arm), butsaid “I don’t intend to give up”.
Can he do it? Who knows. But full credit to him, he’s sticking at it – and proving that he’s still a winner in the process.
Any chance of expanding on this? Pre-accident, Kubica was really going places, so would his former team not have some interest in trying to rehabilitate him sooner rather than later? Or were they angry with him for sustaining the injury in non-F1 circumstances?
I have a little experience of the sorts of things he's going through with arm surgeries and never damage and it's a frustratingly slow process, but nerves will realign and it doesn't take long to work out ways to compensate for limited movement so I'm confident he'll be fit again to drive F1 competitively.
Whether he'll get a seat in the hyper competitive series now without a bucket of sponsorship money is another thing, he might have to live with a development drive first year back.
Eh, no
Clearly can't move the armvery much at all in that video.
His injury is very similar to what my mum's brother had, shattered his elbow after car hit a tree and his arm was sticking out the window. 7 years on he only has a limited range of motion in his elbow and it is no where near as strong as his other arm.
I can see him going back to racing full time tintops, but no way is he going to ever race in F1.
Gah, I want him back in F1 so badly though.
It's a shame that F1 is seen as the be all and end all, perhaps he could be vying for victory in other series.
Are the forces and strength required of limbs that much greater in F1 than rallying? It's all those G Forces?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIks6ZFgXrM&fea...
Doesn't seem to hurt his driving that much. Arm mobility shouldn't be all that much of an issue - you only need a couple of inches of deflection to turn the wheel from lock to lock. Also in a LHD rally car he must be working the gearshift and handbrake with his right hand so the disability isn't that bad. If he can evacuate himself from an F1 cockpit quickly enough (and I believe that's the only requirement) I think he can make a comeback provided the drive is still there.
Surely with the state of technology Kubica could have adaptions to his F1 car so he could successfully race? There are a lot of disabled drivers with adapted cars.
Under UK law employers and organisations are required to make "reasonable adjustments" to meet the needs of disabled people. This could mean technical adaptions by a formula one team and rule book adjustments by FIA so RK could return to grand prix racing.
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