Get Well Soon Robert
Most of you will have heard the sad news about Robert Kubica this week. The Formula One star crashed his Skoda whilst competing in a Rally in Italy leaving him with major injuries to his hand, arm and leg. Doctors and Surgeons battled for over seven hours operating on his injuries to save his hand.
It is still not known how long his recovery will take but he is showing good signs and doctors seem confident he will make a full recovery however long it may take. Initially, reports were that he would miss the start of the Formula One season but now the full extent of his injuries have become clearer, it could well be a year before his return, if at all.
Robert Kubica In Action Last Year
Robert is a well like driver within the world of F1 by teams, drivers and media alike. He is a huge talent with his drives at Renault showing this and it won’t be long before the Polish driver will be a serious Championship contender. As a mark of support and unity, teams have been running their cars at Jerez in testing with get well soon messages.
Many people have wondered why Kubica was in a Rally car in the first place so close to the start of the Formula one season but Renault have defended the decision to let him take part. We all know the dangers of motorsport and let’s face it, modern safety in the support has become so good, it is become rarer for drivers to suffer bad injuries, (remember Webber jumping out and walking away from his car after flying through the air in Valencia?) although injuries do still occur. Robert is clearly a born racer and like most has the urge to get in a car and race. He knows what he is doing and what happened was a freak accident that could happen to anyone, including the best. No one can foresee these incidents and life would be pretty rubbish if you didn’t do things because of what might go wrong. Everything has its risks, even walking down the street so Is it really fair to stop a racing driver doing something he loves? Not really.
In my last blog post I questioned the need for reserve drivers, and Renault have two, Romain Grosjean and Bruno Senna. Here is clearly a time for the reserve drivers to show their worth and step into the fray. However, many, including Renault themselves have been questioning the two drivers abilities at being able to fill the Number one driver’s seat. The team are in a position to be pushing for race wins after Kubica’s performances and podium finishes last year. With Vitaly Petrov currently in the second car, would this target be achieved? Although Petrov has potential, he is still some way off becoming a race winner. Senna, albeit in the slowest car last year seems some way off being able to even push for a points place and Grosjean had a disappointing spell with Renault after the Piquet scandal.
The Cars Displayed Messages Wishing Kubica Well During Jerez Testing
The latest rumour is that Renault are seeking the services of Nick Heidfeld. A proven driver with experience and clearly a better driver than the afore mentioned. Renault seem to have little faith in their reserve drivers so I yet again question the point of them? This is a situation the reserve drivers are there for and they look to be left unused in favour of someone else.
All that said. I would like to wish Robert Kubica a speedy recovery and hope to see him back in an F1 car very soon delighting fans world wide as one of the sports most exciting and much loved racers.
Who’s the Stig?
Everyone hates Sunday evenings right? Let’s face it, it’s the last few hours of the weekend and you’ve got to set your alarm clock and go back to work in the morning. However, thanks to the BBC, the next few Sunday evenings have been made a whole lot better.
I am of course talking about the return of Top Gear to our screens. Of course, the new series is as good as ever with Clarkson, Hammond & May up to their usual tricks, which included landing a helicopter on a car, dropping a VW Beetle from a mile up and finding Sienna Miller in the glove box of a Skoda Yetti. No doubt the local Skoda dealers have been inundated with enquiries about said car from men wondering if Sienna comes as standard or is an optional extra.
However, the big talking point was the new Stig. We all know the reasons behind the departure of the previous one, which led to a hilarious drive by Stig shooting challenge during the American special show at Christmas, but now everyone is trying to work out who the new one is.
The guys are back for another fantastic series.
Tongues are wagging, forums are buzzing and social networks are full of suggestions as to who is the mysterious man in white, ranging from Indian F1 driver Karun Chandhok, to James Mays mum, who featured in an early series test driving small cars. Everyone seems to have an opinion on who it may be. Despite Tiff Needel featuring in the most recent episode and a prior one too, could it be a bluff and actually be him? Another popular opinion is former F1 driver and current Peugeot LMS driver Anthony Davidson, and the probably the favourite, or at least amongst every male petrol head is the Queen of the Nurburgring, Sabine Schmitz. After all, she has featured a few times on the show, but would it be so obvious?
One thing I can categorically say for fact is that the Stig is none of the current HRT F1 drivers. Last I heard they still have 15 laps of the Belgium Grand Prix to complete so they are far too busy. Also, Sakon Yamamoto was offered a drive in the reasonably fast car, but after the first bend he stopped, got out and ran away in fear of the raw speed of the Kia C’eed. 45mph was just too much for him to handle. Needless to say, the bosses at HRT were not happy to have to spend money from their almost none existent budget on 2 weeks in rehab to aid his recovery.
So who is the new Stig?
As for me? Who do I think the new Stig is? Well, having seen the making of the Jeremy Clarkson DVD ‘The Italian Job’ there is a racing driver they used for a few of the pieces involving Ferrari’s. Now, I could well be wrong, but Clarkson obviously thinks highly of this guy and I have sneaky suspicion it could well be him. Will we be reading books about his life in a few years to come? That remains to be seen, but my guess is firmly with this bloke.
His name?………
……Niki Faulkner
