F1 Fanatic

In 2010 Robert Kubica was the driver you could rely on to get everything out of the car and make no errors. He managed to score three podiums that year in what was 4th or 5th fastest car. It’s likely he would’ve got something similar in terms of podiums in 2011 as well, had he not had the injury, but I’m wondering about this year.

The E20 clearly has the pace to win races. Kimi Raikkonen, as incredibly talented as he is, needs/needed time to get used to F1 2012. Romain Grosjean is a very talented driver as well, but he lacks experience. With Kubica there’d also be continuity in the team, which is much better for car design/development.

So I’m interesting in opinions on this: Had he not had the injury last year, would have Robert Kubica won a race so far this season in the Lotus?

Kubica was good, but I don’t think he’d be doing any better than Raikkonen who is on 83 points, and would have finished 2nd in Bahrain and 3rd in Spain. He wouldn’t be ahead of Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton or Webber.

The E20 clearly has the pace to win races.

So did the BMW Sauber F1.08 and the Renault R30. And Kubica only won one race in those, and it came when Hamilton and Raikkonen blew it at the Montreal pit exit.

What I’m trying to say is that I don’t think Robert Kubica is the magic bullet that Lotus would need to take their first win of the season. I think the performance difference between the E20 and the front-runners is comparable to the difference between the F1.08 and the R30 relative to the front-runners in 2008 and 2010, although the E20 is a little more consistent in its performances. I also think that Lotus has two drivers who have the ability to take a car beyond its limits, though perhaps not to the extent that Alonso or Hamilton could do it. So I think that if Robert Kubica was well enough to drive, his performances would be comparable to what Raikkonen and Grosjean are doing at the moment.

It’s a bit like the talk last year that Kubica could have won the Australian Grand Prix because Vitaly Petrov came third. Yes, Kubica was light years ahead of Petrov in 2010, but Petrov really upped his game during the off-season, so the talk of Kubica winning assumes that he would have improved as much as Petrov did.

They were one overtake from winning in Bahrain. Kimi said afterwards that he could’ve got past had he not chose the wrong side. Valencia and Spain were similar, as well as Montreal. There have been plenty of chances to win, but they just haven’t come – Kubica is not rusty (Kimi has been a bit) and he is experienced (Grosjean is not), and also the car would possibly suit him more. I think he’d have won a race or two so far, and would be somewhere around Vettel or Hamilton in the championship.

I agree with @Prisoner-Monkeys on this one, and even if they were one overtake away from winning Bahrain, that overtake also didn’t happen because of the defensive move of the leader, which is often overlooked.

I think this question has lost its relevance since last year. It is now 18 months on, and the team has 2 new drivers, one a proven champion and the other a highly anticipated rookie (essentially), both of whom have driven well overall, despite a couple of areas where they could have driven a bit better. For one thing, it is therefore very difficult to even form a basis for making assumptions about Kubica’s potential in a Renault. For another thing, Kubica did admittedly have a contract for 2012, but would he even necessarily still be driving for them in spite of that? With Kubica on the grid still, an early move to Ferrari may have been likely. It seems that now 2011 is behind us, we may as well be asking “Would have Kubica been doing a better job than Massa at Ferrari/Webber at Red Bull?” or “Would have (insert name of any past driver, e.g. Heidfeld) been doing a better job?”

I thought Kubica was overhyped to be honest especially as he was only up against Petrov. Would he be getting more out of the car? Probably- RoGro and Kimi have both been out of F1 for a while so they still have speed to come however, I always rated Kimi more than Kubica and I think RoGro is a star of the future so as much as I wish Robert was still racing, I don’t actually miss him.

It’s an interesting thread and I know fans like to speculate but at the end of the day Robert’s gone and we’ve got what we’ve got. I’ve said before that I don’t really like ifs and buts. I wish Massa hadn’t been hit on the head with that spring but I don’t wonder “what if” (not even about 08) as it’s results what matter and part of F1 is dealing with the chaotic, unpredictable mess that happens and making the best of it and that’s what Lotus are doing (I actually typed “Renault” at first as I still miss that name :P )