Motorsport Week's team of writers got together to discuss what they believe will be the big questions for the 2019 motorsport season, covering all the major series from Formula 1 to IndyCar, WEC to DTM and everything in-between. We'll be posting one each day and today we ask…
3/19: Can Robert Kubica shine on Formula 1 return?
There are plenty of non-Leclerc driver moves that will be tracked with interest through 2019. Can Pierre Gasly thrive at Red Bull? How will Daniel Ricciardo’s leap of faith with Renault play out? What of rookies George Russell, Lando Norris and Alexander Albon?
But surely the greatest focus will be placed on a driver who has not raced a Formula 1 car since 2010. Robert Kubica’s journey from hospital bed to cockpit has been eight years in the making and the story not only captivates motorsport fans – any story involving Kubica is amongst the most read and debated – but has caught the attention of the wider world.
It is a story that a Hollywood producer would struggle to sell on account of being a bit, well, cliched. Heroic figure has his dream wrecked but lo and behold hard work and the cards falling right means there he is back in the game and oh I’ve switched off because it’s too unbelievable. And yet. Kubica’s sheer determination and work ethic earned him plaudits amidst Williams’ lowest ebb in 2018, having accepted a reserve role after missing a race seat, with Claire Williams quipping during the Pole’s 2019 announcement press conference that he would be offering new ideas and theories while sat in airport lounges at 2am.
To get to this stage, from where he was, is already remarkable. But his mentality means that this is not an achievement upon which he will dwell for too long. He says he would not be embarking on this project if he did not feel he could do it – and we must for now take him at his word that he can still thrive.
Much of his prospects, though, will rest on whether Williams can drag itself from the abyss, having spent 2018 lumbered with an abject package, the result of a flawed design philosophy. Its car was draggy and unstable, and off-track changes were implemented as part of a long-term recovery.
This year will provide the first evidence of whether those tweaks have yielded the desired turnaround. Kubica’s hopes depend on a positive development.
