Kubica set to make remarkable return to F1
When Robert Kubica partially severed his right hand in a rallying accident seven years ago, doctors were unsure how much of a normal life he would able to resume.
The Pole delivered his own emphatic response on Thursday, completing his return to a Formula One seat at the age of 33 and taking his place among the sport’s most remarkable renaissance men.
So grave was Kubica’s crash in 2011 at the Ronde di Andora, where he lost copious quantities of blood after a crash barrier sliced through the car’s cockpit, that he has since had to adapt by driving “70 per cent left-handed”.
For him to convince Williams that he is worthy of a restoration to F1, requiring of its drivers the most prodigious dexterity, represents a feat of stunning resilience.
“It’s a story that probably nobody has believed, and the only one who didn’t give up was me — and the people around me,” Kubica said, after confirming his place at Williams next season alongside Britain’s 20-year-old George Russell.
These are no mere idle platitudes from a driver of Kubica’s deathdefying past. In Montreal in 2007, during his spell at BMW Sauber, he slewed into a retaining wall at 305km/h, reducing his car to a gutted shell. Extraordinarily, having sustained only minor injuries, he came back to Canada the following year and won.
Before his almost fatal incident in the hills around Genoa, which necessitated seven hours of surgery, Kubica had been widely heralded as a world champion in the making, with the possibility of a promotion to Ferrari openly discussed. But even the restricted movement in his right arm did not deter him from thinking that he could ultimately toil his way back to his sport’s most rarefied level.
To see Kubica in the flesh is to recognise that he is, essentially, racing with a disability. His right arm is visibly withered and atrophied, with pictures of his practice sessions with Williams illustrating that he still cannot bend the fingers on his right hand fully. As such, he tends merely to wedge the hand against the steering wheel, using scarcely more than friction for left-hand corners.
Given the physical strength needed to master the latest breed of F1 car, Kubica’s comeback is nothing short of astonishing.
It was not just Kubica’s arm left incapacitated, but his entire righthand side, with multiple fractures from his feet to his shoulders. And yet he stepped back into a rally car within 18 months, savouring victory in his first race back.
“I know what it takes to be a top F1 driver, so I’m not scared of it,” he said. “I’m not afraid of the fact I’ve been away eight years. If I do my job well, I’m sure everyone will be happy.”
Come the season-opening grand prix in Melbourne in March, he will be the second-oldest driver over the grid, behind only Kimi Raikkonen, who turns 40 next year.