Start, Interlagos, 2019

Starts were our only chance to fight with other cars – Kubica

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Robert Kubica says Williams only had the chance to race with other cars this year when they got ahead of them at the start of races.

What they say

[icon2019autocoursempu]Kubica gained more places at the start of races than his team mate George Russell in the uncompetitive FW42, but tended to lose them.

On the first lap you can hide a bit things and there is much more guessing what will happen and improvisation than knowledge. The grip is completely different, there’s a lot of things going on. And I felt like this year this has been very good.

But with our pace it doesn’t really matter. You will stay in front of those guys for one or two laps and then most of the races they will get you back. But still here we did have at least some pace to fight with the others and I was keeping eye contact with some people. Normally it wasn’t the case.

So there is, I think, some important things out of this year at least for the team. Hopefully they will be able to solve them for next year. It wasn’t easy, some things are really compromising myself and George also on racing side.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

Are Perez and Stroll too far apart in our driver rankings?

I think Perez was outstanding after the summer break. Scoring points in every race but Singapore where he had to retire.

Before then though, I thought he was overall pretty poor, with only a few solid results. The fact that Stroll outscored him over the first 12 races before the summer break is pretty negative for Perez, especially given Stroll was rated 19th. I think sixth is possibly a little too high. It wasn’t just bad luck that resulted in Stroll getting more points than him in the first 12 races. Perez binned it in the race where he had the best opportunity of the season to score highly. Stroll managed this and Perez didn’t. As well as scoring more points at this stage of the season, he also finished in the points more often than Perez. four times vs three.

I actually think both drivers underperform somewhat in qualifying (although clearly Stroll does far more) and make some of this up in the race. The average gap in qualifying over the season was 0.13, which isn’t much at all given how often Perez out qualified Stroll. I think this indicates qualifying really is not either drivers strong point.

Perez seemed to be incredibly good in the last nine races, pretty much dominating Stroll (which I really don’t think was the case before hand results wise). Stroll however did look convincingly better in Brazil and would have had a points finish above Perez if not for his suspension problems.

I think Perez should be rated a little lower really as I think he looked to be nowhere given his reputation at one stage of the season. Either that or Stroll should be given a little more credit for the amount of points and points finishes he got before the summer break vs Perez.
Ben Rowe (@Thegianthogweed)

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Arun Srini, Fastmovingthoughts, Stig 3 and Dom!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

  • Born today in 1991: Two-times IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

18 comments on “Starts were our only chance to fight with other cars – Kubica”

  1. Is Lewis manual shifting in that video? Do bikes have F1-style quick shifts now?

    1. Yes and yes.

    2. Is Lewis manual shifting in that video? Do bikes have F1-style quick shifts now?

      MotoGP bikes have had full seamless shifting gearboxes for years now.

    3. All of the factory MotoGP bikes(I think all of the satellite team bikes now too) have had “seamless shifting” transmissions that don’t require you to pull in the clutch lever for a couple of seasons now. The only time the clutch gets used now is at the race start.

      https://www.boxrepsol.com/en/motogp-en/what-is-the-seamless-gearbox-of-motogp-engine/

    4. If that is indeed Ham, and the footage is not sped up he was just over 10s down on valencias motogp pace (pole is a 1:29.something) all things considered that is pretty quick.

  2. Red Bull has be exceptionally supportive & friendly toward Honda in media appearances. Will Honda actually stay in the sport a year or 2 later?

    1. @praxis Hopefully, losing Honda again, especially after the more successful recent past, would be a shame.

        1. @praxis Reading that article you reference, and similar other articles that are mainly speculative based on a low key announcement that they would be in F1 through 2021, does not leave me with a feeling that there is a strong possibility they will leave F1 soon. The article by Hughes in fact gives more reasons for them to stay than for them to leave. Personally I can only see them and RBR getting stronger together, so I would be quite surprised if they were to pull the plug while potentially so on the cusp of success. After the embarrassing years with Mac, to then have a chance to redeem themselves only to leave before they do? Can’t see it, but of course that will be for the higher ups at Honda to decide, lol.

    2. If engine development costs greatly reduce then yes. I think Honda can get a bit of reinvogoration as Mercedes did.

  3. And for Williams, that’s probably going to be the case next season as well. I can’t see them finishing anywhere but last in the WCC again, but hopefully, they’d at least be closer to the back of the midfield on pace.

  4. Judging from the number of articles written about Kubica throughout the year, one might have thought he was one of the best F1 drivers in 2019, not the worse. He’s had more acreage than the middle 13 drivers put together. Sorry, but it doesn’t make sense that he’s still being written about, when Nico Hukenberg, who deserves a future in racing, has all but disappeared from the F1 media.

    1. @jon bee. I think I agree with the first part of your post in that Kubica didn’t warrant the seat or the subsequent coverage, but I remain unconvinced by Hulkenburg. I think I’d prefer to see two new names join the F1 elite in place of both of these gents.
      I know that sounds pretty horrible, but I think that’s in the best interest of the future of the sport.

      1. @nickwyatt Considering Hulk obliterated a teammmate who according to race fans drivers ranking is surely top4 (worst case) Hulk should be minus 1 and win titles by default. I guess that rookie Norris must be Senna reincarnate.

      2. Last one was Georg.

    2. He is being written about because people want to read about him. he is a motorsport legend, and an f1 legend, and a hero to many fans. Kubica has had less starts then even Verstappen, less then 100 in f1. he is being written about because people remember, they remember he used to beat Hamilton in junior catergories, and was the driver of the season in 2010 before his injury. he had a contract to drive from Ferrari from 2012. He spent a long time away from f1 but made a miraculous comeback to the highest level of motorsport when no one believed he could. He also made up +24 places on lap 1 this season, that is the third best in f1 this season. grosjean for instance made -46 places on lap 1. He will be around the paddock next year as a test driver for hass or racing point with the intention of trying another comeback in 2021 as he has good backing now (he is very marketable). (I think he will now choose racing point, as has might leave after next season). you might not like it, but their will be much more written about Kubica as this was his first year of his racing comeback, and he intends to race for many many years.

      1. Very well said.

      2. Kubica won once before his injury. How soon people have forgotten Johnny Herbert who arrived in F1 still suffering the serious injuries he’d received only months before and never really recovered from. Herbert won 3 F1 races and went on to win in other series after he left F1. Smiling all the time.

Comments are closed.