Kubica wins Acropolis Rally in WRC2 class

Not a bad result, it has to be said!

this is what could have been at ferrari:
[sokolimokiem.tv]

today he was back doing physio, trying to get that arm working, what a long slow road of recovery.

nice article (google translated)
[translate.google.com]

great video, Spraying the champaigne at end (notice everything is still left hand orrientated)






Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 10:53AM by kubica2.

nice article (google translated)
[translate.google.com]

great 6 minute onboard with kubica in HD from last weekend

J i m Wrote:
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> Not a bad result, it has to be said!


And @ Rally San Martino during this weekend:



Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

Ouch.

This man does not have small accidents.

ofcourse people have to pick out the bad points without commenting on the good ones.

Kubica was in 4th place in the rally until that point, doing very well. he and co-driver are unhurt.

people are speculating the crash is because of the co-driver today Jakub Gerber, the same co-driver as the crash in 2011. on a couple polish forums they are all digging up the bad incidents of Gerber to make their point. last week kubica had a different co-driver and had no incidents.

rallying will always have crashes. kubica is calling this the 'active' part of his rehabilitation, and is checking his concentration and reflexes in rallying. he doesnt care about results at this stage, just wants the feel of driving fast again, and have his hand continue rehabilitatin. he is said to maybe do some GT car testing soon after.

in 2 weeks he is expected to try another italian rally.

my father in poland had a bad work incident in poland in the 70s with similarly a partially severed hand. after 1 year of rehab, he said his hand was stiff as a board, but the nerves were attached and were regrowing. a bit later he went back to work, and tells me in that part of his 'active' rehabilitation the rehab sped up. we are hoping that is the same for kubica, whose hand is still stiff, but with about 50% feeling and movement. the doctor that operated on him, rosello, says his nerves are all attached correctly and regrowing and rehab is ongoing. kubica is over the worst of it. imagine 20 months of hospitals, surgeries and intense physio.

here is a great video, kubica driving like mad at this rally event, before driving into a creek! this was a different incident to the photo above. it happened a day ealier. this one happened during a training session, he hit a tire and then could not stop the car.




later that night on the special stage kubica was 2 seconds faster then anyone else, but made a small mistake, that needed him to reverse the car, losing him about 9 seconds. he finished about 5.5 seconds off first place in that stage, against top italian rally drivers many also in wrc and s2000 class cars, and many newer then kubicas car.

Maybe he should be doing this on a GT track but? less likely of crashing. watching the above video you can see why rally but, the quick coordination, reflexes and fun factor.

After the incident, he spoke to media, and said tomorrow he is going back to for more of his ongoing rehab, and will decide where to race next, it is expected to be another italian rally in 2 weeks.

Also just to confirm, Kubica's Subaru, in original form has a paddle shift on the right side of steering wheel, and kubica had that moved to the left side.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 10:52AM by kubica2.

The earliest we'd realistically be looking at a comeback for him would be 2014 - but if he can get the feeling and flexibility back into his arm and hand between now and then, it'll be on. He'll still be a younger driver then, and capable of learning and getting back up to speed quickly after his time out of F1, and with plenty years ahead of him to pick up where he left off.
His recovery is looking increasingly positive after looking pretty hopeless at one point - but this active phase of his rehab and how it turns out(probably over the next year or so) will be crucial.
I just hope he has no more big crashes - I cringe everytime I see a photo of a wrecked car.

---

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2012 10:45PM by EC83.

I can´t understand the hype around this guy. I hope he´ll stay where he is...out of F1! And even if someone is stupid enough to get him back...he´d be crash landing his already ended F1 career

you dont understand, but many fans of f1 do - he is one of the fastest racing car drivers in the world, and even Ferrari understood the hype too.

Mika Hakkinnen understands the hype, he spoke to polish media this weekend and said that he will easily find a team to race for when he is ready to return.

[translate.google.com]


@ECW, kubica has said as much too, it will be a year of rehab driving lower class cars then f1 - with more elbow room, in 2014 he will still be 29, and these days f1 drivers drive to 37+.



the 2 incidents this week were not big. the first one was very small, made to look worse by water. the second one looks worse then it is because the car ended on its side, but that was just the end of the incident when the car toppled.

raikkonnen had heaps of crashes in rallying last year, including many very big ones. he stills wants to rally too.



here is a twitter account of one of his subaru car engineers, seems they are all keen to patch up the car and go racing again.

[twitter.com]

kubica2 Wrote:
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> you dont understand, but many fans of f1 do - he
> is one of the fastest racing car drivers in the
> world,


Along with Barrichello, Piquet Jr, Heidfeld, McNish, Villeneuve, Couthard, Speed.. And lots of other drivers.

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

well go start a thread about them, this one is about kubica.

kubica2 Wrote:
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> well go start a thread about them, this one is
> about kubica.


Was just comment about hype around this your god.. Sorry, I don't want to start a new topic for it.

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2012 06:35PM by IWE.

Kubica is not like those guys. He delivered those types of performances in a car, which were arguably beyond the limits of that machinery.

Remember how he beat Heidfeld like Alonso does with Massa.

He made the 2008 BMW Sauber a championship contender.

He is one of 'those' guys, I'm sure. Those who can constantly deliver 110%.

Atticus. Wrote:
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> Remember how he beat Heidfeld like Alonso does
> with Massa.

On 1 season out of 3½. I think Alonso is doing SLIGHTLY better than that.

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

Kubica won again this past weekend in a much longer rally then the first one he won:

final classification after nine super stages (kubica won 6 stages):
[1.bp.blogspot.com]

He competed with about 5 other wrc class cars (newer than his), and also many s2000.









onboard from the shakedown stage:




Also after the race, kubica said the road to recovery is very long, but he now feels maybe it is not as long as he first thought.
After the race at the award ceremony, he was asked by the MC if he will come back to the Bassano Rally next year, he said no, because he hopes to be in racing somewhere else next year.

It was also revealed by kubica recently that Kubica had an agreement to do asphalt testing for ford in rallying for 2011. since the crash, ford have been in regular contact with still wanting him to test their car, he refused at first because of his injuries, but a couple of months ago he tested for them, and surprised himself with his pace and that his body coped - that was when he knew he was ready to finally drive race cars again. It is said he was faster then Fords 2 rally drivers at the test - not verified, and is likely to work again with Ford.

He is now having a break of about 1 month, back to regular rehabilitation. Then he intends to compete in an even bigger Rally in november (possibly in france).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2012 10:58AM by kubica2.

It's certainly easier to see a return to professional Motorsport full time now. Maybe not ultimately F1. But Robert is proving to be very adept at adapting and his recovery has been remarkable since apart from being lucky to be simply alive he damn well near lost an arm as well.

His spirited determination to carry on inspite of all the injury and setback he's gone through is reminding me a lot of Alex Zanardi.