WILL KUBICA SHOW WILLIAMS WAS WRONG?

The Robert Kubica story was all geared up to be the feelgood tale of the year. A guy going from death’s door back to the top of the sport, despite being hampered by restricted movement in one limb, is the stuff of Hollywood box-office hits. But, alas, come the Abu Dhabi test, he wasn’t able to unlock the speed he needed over the one-lap qualifying simulations for Williams to justify taking a punt on him for the race seat. The engineers were very complimentary about his feedback and professionalism, and the fact that he has been kept on as a test-and-reserve driver will, I think, be a great asset to the team. Kubica will also get some decent mileage in the 2018 car and this will give him the chance to get up to speed a bit more. Coming back to F1 after time away is never easy. Sure, Niki Lauda and Alain Prost managed to win championships after their sabbaticals, but Michael Schumacher was a shadow of his former self in his comeback years with Mercedes, and Kimi Raikkonnen is more ‘solid’ than the devastatingly fast Finn of 2003-06. I strongly believe that the Pirelli era we’re in is an added difficulty for Kubica’s comeback. The last time he drove in F1 in 2010, we were at the end of the Bridgestone era, where you could really lean on the front tyre, braking and turning all the way into the apex with huge entry speed and a lot of load going through the front tyre. I know from personal experience that the Pirelli required a total reset in terms of style, as you just can’t load the front tyre as much. If you look back at the comments from drivers in 2011 and ’12, that was what they all talked about. Seven years into the Pirelli era, they’ve all had time to get used to it and indeed in that time, drivers like Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have arrived and known nothing but a Pirelli. Perhaps with more mileage Kubica will be able to get his head around how to unlock that final half-second in qualifying. I for one will certainly be hoping that he does – F1 needs a few feelgood stories!