As Murray Walker would say the new F1 season is all set to ‘go,go,go’ in less than a months time starting in, Sakir, with the Bahrain Grand Prix. There’s been much debate over the winter about how Ferrari will react to being pipped at the post in Abu Dhabi, whether Schuey can up his game after a distinctly average return last season and also whether the teams will adapt to the new Pirelli tyres. While underneath the surface everyone has failed to notice that Renault were beginning to shape up very nicely for the 2011 season.
Off-the-track there had been a little bit of scandal with regards to the team’s naming rights as this season they’ll be named Lotus-Renault after striking a $100m title name sponsor with the prestigious car giant. This resulted in a bitter war of words between the Renault crew and Team Lotus about who were the rightful owners of the team’s renowned F1 pedigree.
In truth this was all a flash in the pan and during pre-season practise the sleeping giant of a team had been topping the time sheets under the stewardship of Pole, Robert Kubica, touted as a genuine title contender for the forthcoming season by Sterling Moss. The one-time race winner, who ran Lewis Hamilton close to the world crown in 2008 must have been feeling pretty confident about his prospects for this season until that ill-fated Sunday morning, only three days ago.
Kubica, a well known rally enthusiast, was given permission to compete in the Ronde di Andora Rally, in Genoa, Italy, by Lotus-Renault bosses but it has been well documented that he had a serious crash during the road stage.
The former BWM-Sauber racer has fractures to his right shoulder, elbow and leg but the major concern and the severe cuts he suffered to his hand. Since the accident, where he crashed into a church wall and was trapped inside his Skoda Fabia for over an hour before being freed, he has had numerous operations on his injured hand.
What is certain is that F1’s first-ever Polish driver will not be on the grid in 29 days time, if at all this season, Lotus-Renault now have to decide who is capable of driving their vastly improved car and take over from their team leader.
The team’s test drivers Bruno Senna, nephew of the legendary Ayrton, and Romain Grosjean both have limited F1 experience, neither have ever completed an entire season. So it’s unlikely they’d be able to fill the void left by Kubica and the idea of Vitaly Petrov leading the team is sure to be met by cynicism. The Russian had a so-so debut year, admittedly he vastly improved in the second-half, but he will have to come on leaps and bounds to be considered seriously.
Renault team boss Eric Boullier has publicly shortlisted Bruno Senna, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nick Heidfeld to replace the injured Robert Kubica in 2011. Of the three surely, Heidfeld, stands out as he has experience and some proven pedigree. Although that said, to me, he’s only a safe pair of hands as his best career finish is only 2nd place, ironically behind Kubica, his then team-mate at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix. Maybe Lotus-Renault should be trying to cast their net further a field.
Other names touted include, the rumoured new Stig, Anthony Davidson and the impressive Nico Hulkenberg, who was somewhat unlucky not to keep his race seat at Williams. Hulkenberg and Heidfeld would make suitable replacements but in my opinion one candidate stands out, Kimi Raikkonen. After his Ferrari exile and a year in the wilderness rallying with Citroen is it now time to bring the 2007 World Champion back to F1?
Sure the Iceman can appear lazy and uninterested at times but he obviously has a winner’s mentality at heart, Lotus-Renault could do a lot worse than hiring the Finn to keep Kubica’s seat warm.
Also, today Citroën Sport director Olivier Quesnel, did state that Raikkonen would be free to make a ‘sensational’ comeback to the sport if he wanted to. So Lotus-Renault should not hesitate to jump at this prompting and sign a proven winner rather than another potential prospect which they have seemed all too keen to do in recent seasons. Anyone remember Nelson Piquet Jr?
Whatever happens the main thing is that Robert Kubica is back in F1 sooner rather than later as he has the abundant ability of a future champion.
