• Pole will undergo more surgery on Friday after rallying crash
• Robert Kubica says: ‘After accidents, you improve’
The Renault driver Robert Kubica, who suffered serious injuries in a rallying crash last weekend, has said that he is determined to return to Formula One as soon as possible. The Pole is due to undergo more surgery.
“I want to get back on the track stronger than ever, because after these accidents you aren’t what you were before, you improve,” Kubica said in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport. “It happened to me in 2007 too, after the crash in Canada [in which he suffered a broken leg]. I was out for a race and when I got back I was better.
“A driver is not just throttle and steering wheel, it’s more than that. There’s a difference between someone who drives at 80% and who does at 95%: in that 15% extra you find the abilities and the motivations coming out. Since 2007, I’m stronger head-wise as a driver. And it will be the same this time again, when I’ll be back in good physical shape. I must return this year. I remember well my state when, seven years ago, I was in a car with a friend driving, we were hit by another car driven by a drunk. We ended up against a barrier and bent it, before falling down a cliff.
“It was the same right arm: massacred. But after four days it didn’t feel as good as it feels now and this reassures me. Dr Ceccarelli did the rest, and he assists me now too. I have an insane urge to cut the times with the best possible preparation. I don’t even know what a bone is like but since they are fixing it for me, it’s up to me to make it work the way it’s supposed to.”
Kubica said he remembered nothing about the rallying accident that left him with fractures to his legs and arms and in danger of losing a hand. When asked about his condition he said: “The fingers work, I can feel them, and the arm does too. But I’m undergoing surgery and I will know only after that.
“I’m sorry for what has happened. It shouldn’t have. I don’t even know what happened; I can’t remember anything of the crash. I found myself in hospital and everything was explained by my manager, Daniele Morelli, who has been here since Sunday.”
Kubica said he had been right to drive in the rally. “Had I not done it, I would have stayed home regretting it,” he said. “So I did it and now I’m in this bed. But rallies aren’t just a passion. They are severe training for F1. I drive better in F1 because I did many rallies last year. Rallying helps your concentration, especially since there is almost no more testing in F1. Performance in F1 comes from a series of details. Rallying has allowed me to work on certain aspects of myself where there are still margins to improve. It’s important in a season like this with 20 races.”
Morelli said: “When he arrived [in hospital] he had only one litre of blood. ‘Call the boy’s parents,’ the doctors told me on Sunday afternoon. I felt a chill in my spine.”
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