Kubica injured after crashing out of rally

homer simpson

Co-driver is being very critical of the barriers, saying that he can't understand why there was a gap in the barriers, and saying that FIA should look into more front protection in rally cars...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89327

Iron Hide

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Problem is that Senna is crap (relatively speaking)

God yeah not denying that he's a pretty poor driver, id say this Genii Capital crowd that own Renault might just be tempted though.
I would be very surprised if it wasn't Heidfeld or De La Rosa, both good drivers and good testers plus they each have experience with Pirelli.

bamboozling

To be honest I seriously worry for Robert's long term future as an F1 driver.

When the doctor says rehabilitation could take up to a year, the end result is not the ability to drive an F1 car, it'll be to see if he can write, see if he can type and then go from there.

I think Renault should go after Kimi for this year at least. The way I see it, bring Kimi in on a one year contract. Even if Kubica is ready to come back hold him off until 2012.

Kimi always said that he'd only ever race in a car he thought he could win world championships with. I think this years Renault could be that car, quick so far in testing and the side pods could be valuable source of advantage over the rest of the field.

Kimi brings sponsorship which Renault need and I think he'd love one opportunity to just say fúck it, go racing and enjoy himself. Do a deal whereby he doesn't have to do many press days and maybe do something like where Lotus or Renault sponsor him in rallying in 2012.

Lotus-Renault will know if they have a car capable of winning races and championships and I don't think they'll jepardise that opportunity by having a line up of Senna and Petrov. Whatever happens it'll be fascinating.

Oh and get well soon Robert. Hope your back for 2011.

amacachi

frostie500 wrote: »

I understand where yore coming from Lightning but Raikkonen is the best driver that they could target and he would be very useful in bringing in sponsorship for the new year. At the launch there was a lot of in-house advertising on the car from GenII and their companies and when you consider that last year they requested to get their 2011 TV money early its pretty clear that they need an injection of cash. I'd imagine that Raikkonen wouldnt be interested in coming to the team, he clearly loves rallying, but the team need to target him. I believe that if they can offer him an attractive deal that sees very few PR days that he would suddenly find his love of F1 again-it was never driving the car that was an issue for him.

If it was a choice between the likes of de la Rosa, Heidfeld or Davidson I'd give Davidson a shot. He has so much experience developing cars and at the end of the day de la Rosa and Heidfeld did very little to distinguish themselves last year, admittidly the Sauber was not a great car.

I'd miss Davidson too much if he started driving. :pac: TBH if they could get Kimi it'd be a no-brainer IMO. If the car's as fast as it looks they'd be daft to put a mediocre driver in it.

no nails niall

bamboozling wrote: »

To be honest I seriously worry for Robert's long term future as an F1 driver.

When the doctor says rehabilitation could take up to a year, the end result is not the ability to drive an F1 car, it'll be to see if he can write, see if he can type and then go from there.

I think Renault should go after Kimi for this year at least. The way I see it, bring Kimi in on a one year contract. Even if Kubica is ready to come back hold him off until 2012.

Kimi always said that he'd only ever race in a car he thought he could win world championships with. I think this years Renault could be that car, quick so far in testing and the side pods could be valuable source of advantage over the rest of the field.

Kimi brings sponsorship which Renault need and I think he'd love one opportunity to just say fúck it, go racing and enjoy himself. Do a deal whereby he doesn't have to do many press days and maybe do something like where Lotus or Renault sponsor him in rallying in 2012.

Lotus-Renault will know if they have a car capable of winning races and championships and I don't think they'll jepardise that opportunity by having a line up of Senna and Petrov. Whatever happens it'll be fascinating.

Oh and get well soon Robert. Hope your back for 2011.

Why should any team bend over backwards to keep that finnish bitCh happy?

Get some fella in who chomping at the bit to race F1

bamboozling

Because he's worth it. Get in Heidfeld, De La Rosa or Senna if you want and Renault will probably get the odd podium and maybe a race win. With Kimi driving I'd expect Renault to be challenging for titles if the car is as quick as it looks.

Sometimes in life you gotta pay over the odds for a good thing. Ferrari did it in 1996 paying Schumacher $50 million over two years. That turned out rather well.

Actually on an aside this probably scuppers the rumours that Kubica was to join Alonso at Ferrari.

homer simpson

Kimi has invested too much money into the WRC this year (team ice racing) to just walk away from it, he bought a new car / service lorry recce car ect, i cant see him going back to F1 especially when the first round of the WRC is this weekend, that and the fact he quit F1 for the WRC in the first place!

frostie500

Just after seeing this on twitter, shocking image of the full extent of the crash:

Daniel S

Will he be wearing a brace or something next year? I couldn't imagine anyone driving without one after that sort of injury.

leeroybrown

I doubt it. If he's not physically strong enough to take full f1 race distance then he probably isn't fit enough to get back in the car.

vincenzolorenzo

bamboozling wrote: »

Because he's worth it. Get in Heidfeld, De La Rosa or Senna if you want and Renault will probably get the odd podium and maybe a race win. With Kimi driving I'd expect Renault to be challenging for titles if the car is as quick as it looks.

Sometimes in life you gotta pay over the odds for a good thing. Ferrari did it in 1996 paying Schumacher $50 million over two years. That turned out rather well.

Actually on an aside this probably scuppers the rumours that Kubica was to join Alonso at Ferrari.

Wouldn't agree with you at all. Ferrari-Schumacher worked out (after 4 years, it was by no means an overnight success) because Schumacher worked incredibly hard to develop the car and team, and he brought the top Benetton people with him. Raikkonen on the other hand is not a team leader by any stretch of the imagination. he's fast when he wants to be. As soon as he loses interest at all he just goes off the boil. See 2008 and 2009 as a case in point. Overall, very disappointing performance from someone who is apparently the fastest out there.

I'm not a fan, i have to say

amacachi

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

Wouldn't agree with you at all. Ferrari-Schumacher worked out (after 4 years, it was by no means an overnight success) because Schumacher worked incredibly hard to develop the car and team, and he brought the top Benetton people with him. Raikkonen on the other hand is not a team leader by any stretch of the imagination. he's fast when he wants to be. As soon as he loses interest at all he just goes off the boil. See 2008 and 2009 as a case in point. Overall, very disappointing performance from someone who is apparently the fastest out there.

I'm not a fan, i have to say

At least there'd be a chance he'd pull something out of the bag. Does anyone really think Heidfeld, DLR or Senna have it in them to put Renault in with a shout this season?

vincenzolorenzo

losthorizon wrote: »

Very sad sight when they come upon Kubicas car and thats the reason they got rid of all the armco barriers in F1. Too many deaths and serious injuries.

They still have armco barriers in F1 I thought?

muckwarrior

amacachi wrote: »

Does anyone really think Heidfeld, DLR or Senna have it in them to put Renault in with a shout this season?

Heidfeld is underrated IMO. Kubica may have had the edge on him at BMW, but not by much.

WesternNight

The latest according to formula1.com

Renault’s Robert Kubica was able to talk to relatives and move the fingers in his injured right hand on Monday morning, after being briefly awoken by doctors at Italy’s Santa Corona Hospital (Pietra Ligure).

Kubica was placed into an artificially-induced coma on Sunday after undergoing seven hours of surgery to reconstruct his right forearm, following a high-speed crash whilst competing in the Ronde di Andora Rally.

The Polish driver spent the night under constant observation and on Monday Professor Mario Igor Rossello, Director for the Regional Centre of Hand Surgery at San Paolo Hospital in Savona, encouragingly reported that there is no swelling or infection on the right forearm, though it will be several days before it is known if the operation has been 100 percent successful.

In order to avoid further physical stress, Kubica will be put under gentle medication in order to sleep for the next 24 hours at least. In the meantime doctors will decide how to treat his elbow and shoulder fractures. Kubica may have to undergo surgery once again for this, but not for a few days.

bamboozling

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

Wouldn't agree with you at all. Ferrari-Schumacher worked out (after 4 years, it was by no means an overnight success) because Schumacher worked incredibly hard to develop the car and team, and he brought the top Benetton people with him. Raikkonen on the other hand is not a team leader by any stretch of the imagination. he's fast when he wants to be. As soon as he loses interest at all he just goes off the boil. See 2008 and 2009 as a case in point. Overall, very disappointing performance from someone who is apparently the fastest out there.

I'm not a fan, i have to say

But I'm a fan of Kimi, not a fan boy but a follower of his, so we're never going to agree!

But I think he's worth the punt for the season. Like Amacachi said he's the one driver out there who could pull something out of the bag.

Kimi were he hired might do nothing or else he could catch fire get motivated and have a great season. It could go either way but for me the reward outweighs the punishment because even if he doesn't have a good season he'll probably still pull out 1 or 2 great performances.

The Schumacher comparison was a bit off but I will say this. I'll never forget the 2009 Belgian grand prix, he got the car to qualify 6th when it shouldn't have been, got up to first with the safety car, Kers and some lax stewarding. But he had Fisi in a faster car up his hole for nearly 40 odd laps and he didn't err so much as once. If you could get that performance out of him most races Renault would be onto a winner.

mickdw

frostie500 wrote: »

Just after seeing this on twitter, shocking image of the full extent of the crash:

Jesus, had to have a look at the video again as I didnt see the barrier sticking out the back like that the first time. That is scary sh1t. Lucky lucky guys to get out of that.

Seems like great news that he can move his fingers tonight.

thegoth

I think every agrees that Kimi would be the fastest driver that Renault could get, but assume that they cant agree a deal, who would you have next. Personally, I'd have Heidfield even over Nico Hulkenberg. Heidfield is a former GP2 (F3000) champion and has LOADS of experience plus he was faster than Kubica at BMW for one year, slower another and fairly even with him another. I think far too much weight has been given to Hulkenberg's Brazilian qualifying performance. One fine day never meet a summer!!

thegoth

Computer simulation of Kubicas crash http://www.gpupdate.net/en/videos/752/computer-simulation-of-kubica-s-accident/

losthorizon

Gerbers account of the crash

http://motortweets.com/robertkubica/news/447187

Ghost Train

Theres a small bump in the road just after where the second marshell is holding the yellow flag, read it's because of a tree root. That and the damp road is what was blamed for him loosing control in one of the first reports I read

Iron Hide

After looking at the sim, i am actually amazed at how Kubica or indeed his co-driver were not completely impaled on the armco.
I know accidents happen and all that, and i'll probably incur the wrath of rallying fans but i think the WRC will have to seriously look at the dangers of armco barriers for the coming seasons and possibly adjust rally stages accordingly.

I wouldnt call myself a rally fan at all but i have tremendous respect for the drivers past and present, and the last thing motorsport needs is a spate of serious accidents or a death. Armco's were dispensed with in F1 a few years ago, and i think it was a great move.

Whether its an F1 or GP2 car zooming around a track at 200 odd mph, or a WRC car being thrashed around a windy road in Andorra, neither one hitting a steel barrier is going to end well.

homer simpson

I don't think the Simulated video is totally accurate, as was discussed on another forum, all other reports, eyewitness and co-driver ect, said that the car grazed the barrier then there was a break in the barrier and then they hit a second barrier head on...

mickdw

The armco is kubicas crash must have been installed in a location where it was always going to be a danger given that the car was able to it it pretty square on the end. Poor form really

EvilMonkey

Iron Hide wrote: »

After looking at the sim, i am actually amazed at how Kubica or indeed his co-driver were not completely impaled on the armco.
I know accidents happen and all that, and i'll probably incur the wrath of rallying fans but i think the WRC will have to seriously look at the dangers of armco barriers for the coming seasons and possibly adjust rally stages accordingly.

I wouldnt call myself a rally fan at all but i have tremendous respect for the drivers past and present, and the last thing motorsport needs is a spate of serious accidents or a death. Armco's were dispensed with in F1 a few years ago, and i think it was a great move.

Whether its an F1 or GP2 car zooming around a track at 200 odd mph, or a WRC car being thrashed around a windy road in Andorra, neither one hitting a steel barrier is going to end well.

Monaco is lined with armcos!

savagecabbages

If there is a section of armco on a rally stage, its there because its always been there. Any armco or walls are part of the original road.
The rally organizers cant be expected to line hundreds of km of stages with armco.

This was a freak accident, and hopefully Robert will go on to make a full recovery and compete again

frostie500

There was positive news from Italy this morning with local media reporting that Robert Kubica has been moved from the intensive care unit at Santa Corona hospital. The Pole, who has regained movement in his fingers, has been moved to a normal ward.

Kubica is set to undergo surgery on his foot tomorrow, before doctors operate on his elbow at the beginning of next week. When these surgeries are completed the Renault driver will return to ICU for post-surgery recovery.

Testing for new Formula 1 season continues in Jerez today and numerous cars have incorporated a get well soon message to Kubica.

no nails niall

homer_simpson wrote: »

Kimi has invested too much money into the WRC this year (team ice racing) to just walk away from it, he bought a new car / service lorry recce car ect, i cant see him going back to F1 especially when the first round of the WRC is this weekend, that and the fact he quit F1 for the WRC in the first place!

He might need some wonga to cover his investment.

reiger

Iron Hide wrote: »

After looking at the sim, i am actually amazed at how Kubica or indeed his co-driver were not completely impaled on the armco.
I know accidents happen and all that, and i'll probably incur the wrath of rallying fans but i think the WRC will have to seriously look at the dangers of armco barriers for the coming seasons and possibly adjust rally stages accordingly.

I wouldnt call myself a rally fan at all but i have tremendous respect for the drivers past and present, and the last thing motorsport needs is a spate of serious accidents or a death. Armco's were dispensed with in F1 a few years ago, and i think it was a great move.

Whether its an F1 or GP2 car zooming around a track at 200 odd mph, or a WRC car being thrashed around a windy road in Andorra, neither one hitting a steel barrier is going to end well.

will you go away and educate yourself on what happens in rallying,such a daft comment.
most F1 fans hadnt a clue what a skoda fabia S2K was before last sunday or what a rally car looked like, now there all experts.

Autosport

That was thoughtful of the teams to do that