He currently has the worst head-to-head vs his team-mate of any driver in Formula 1. Seven races in to the 2019 F1 season and Robert Kubica has been outqualified seven times and beaten in seven races by his rookie team-mate George Russell.
Amid complaints he’s been given inferior equipment, on the raw end of strategy calls and with the worst car on the grid by a significant margin (it’s even been claimed he’s the victim of team bias by some of his saltier Polish supporters #ridiculous) it’s difficult to imagine what could have conceivably made Robert Kubica‘s return to Formula 1 more difficult.
However, if Kubica’s Formula 1 renaissance is going to turn out to be a one season wonder (and I’m increasingly thinking it will be), when we look back on his return with the benefit of hindsight we’re going to remember it as a complete triumph.
Putting to one side the unfounded accusations of unfairness, that he doesn’t appear to be able to compete at this stage of his career is almost a footnote to what is an incredible story.
For no other driver has been able to return to Formula 1 and found himself able to compete after such a lengthy break from the sport.
Add to this the life threatening injuries that forced him into the hiatus that most of us thought would signal the end of his racing career, and that continue to impair his movement, for the Pole to find a seat as one of the top few dozen drivers in the world is an achievement worth celebrating, irrespective of results.
Sadly, Formula 1 is an unforgiving business and any weaknesses will be magnified, critiqued and pored over by F1 folk as well as hundreds of thousands of all-knowing, all-seeing armchair critics.
So we might have to wait until the Kubica F1 experiment has ended before we can properly appreciate what RK achieved in getting back in this year’s Williams FW42.
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