YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS
ALL OF MY REHABILITATION, HAS BEEN QUITE COMPLICATED AND EXHAUSTING… I FOUND MAYBE I CAN DO THE SAME THINGS BUT I HAVE TO FIND A DIFFERENT WAY
It’s great to see you in a team with so much potential going forward. What are your hopes and expectations this season – for yourself and for the team? Christopher Jackson, UK
My position is a bit different in the team. I’m not racing, so I have different goals than I would have if I was racing. I’m not fighting for points or qualifying positions, but still I have some goals for this year. Of course I would like to help the team and get involved with many things and this is a good opportunity for me to get involved in the much wider picture than I would be able to if I was racing – from the technical and engineering points of view.
Where do you keep your winner’s Canadian Grand Prix trophy? Adam Pender, UK
It’s a very simple answer: I don’t have it! F1 Racing: Who’s got it? RK: BMW. F1R: You don’t have a replica or anything? RK: No.
Do you still play poker? Tomek Zwolinski, Poland
Not for a long time. I have good memories from Australia, but I won’t even visit the poker room this year. The passion and the fun of playing it has gone.
Who is the toughest opponent you have ever encountered? James Kruuse, Kenya
I think Lewis Hamilton. We’ve raced since we were very young; he’s a very tough one. There are other tough guys I have been racing with – most of them from F1 – but Lewis and I have been racing for so many years together in different categories, that’s why it’s him.
Why did you choose Nico Rosberg to help you last year? Zuzanna Oskiera, Poland
I think that Nico had good experience with Formula 1 and of course he has won a world championship. He decided to stop, which I think is a decision that we have to respect and one that shows his maturity. For sure it was not easy for him. He played a very important role last year; we met up a few times and then I asked him if he would be happy to help me, and he was, and he did quite a lot to get me to where I am now.
F1R: Are you still working together now?
RK: Yes and no…
What is your favourite pizza? Luca Romagnoli, Italy
Most of the time I would take prosciutto funghi.
Which circuit that’s on the calendar now, but wasn’t when you were last in F1, are you most looking forward to driving on? Melodee Ghosn, USA
Definitely Baku. I will not be driving on the track there this year, but on the sim maybe! From the outside Baku looks very challenging, and normally what looks challenging on television is even more challenging when you experience it in reality.
You can tell us now… did you have a Ferrari contract? Andy Groves, UK
Well, I don’t know if I can tell you that… [laughs]. It’s already been a few years, but still it’s a delicate topic. I think it was admitted by someone from Ferrari that we had come quite close to it. But we were probably closer than everybody thinks.
When did you realise you were ready to get back into an F1 car? Fern Lock, UK
All of my rehabilitation, all of my journey, has been quite complicated and exhausting. I think the turning point was when I decided to stop rallying. Then I started working on my physical aspects, and then I realised that by raising difficulties I’m having better results than expected, not only performance but from a physical point of view. And I found maybe I can do the same things but I have to find a different way. Before I was not accepting this and I was trying to do the same things in the same way as before, which was not possible or was very difficult. And then I was getting disappointed. F1R: You did the GP3 and Formula E tests – they’re very different to rallying. How was the sensation?
RK: I tested the GP3 car mainly to understand my physical limitations. I was raising the difficulty step by step. First I was discovering performance, second I was seeing if I was able to do it, and third was about what level I can get to and stretch my body without really losing performance. It was quite a good period. It was difficult, but I had some very good surprises about my reactions and the feeling I had from my body.