Polish Ace Robert Kubica to Test LMP1 WEC Car

Paul Jeffrey · Nov 19, 2016

31 year old former BMW Sauber and Renault Formula One driver Robert Kubica is set to make his WEC LMP1 debut this weekend in Bahrain, as the Polish driver takes part in the WEC Rookie Test for the ByKolles privateer LMP1 team.

The Rookie Test, due to be held on Sunday, will mark a high point in Kubica's return to closed circuit racing following his tragic accident driving a rally car in 2011 that left the talented driver close to losing full functionality in his hand. With his Grand Prix career in the ascendancy, Kubica suffered severe injuries to his hand after colliding with an Armco railing during a minor rally event in 2011, effectively ending his single seater career due to the loss of dexterity in his fingers proving too great to effectively handle the fine movements required to manage and drive modern Grand Prix machinery. Since his recovery Kubica has focussed mainly on the World Rally Championship, with limited success, before embarking on a circuit comeback this year. With funding running short on his usual WRC drive, Kubica has already taken raced a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG in the Mugello 12 Hours round of the Creventic series as well as a drive in the Renault Sport Trophy one-make series.

“He’s coming here to get some experience and see how he likes a LMP1 car, He’s had a long relationship with Colin and he wants to see if this car is suited to him. For now, there’s nothing [for next year].” ByKolles Head of Operations Boris Bermes told FOXSports.com.

A WEC Rookie Test in the ByKolles CLM P1/01 AER in Bahrain is by no means a guarantee that Kubica is in the frame for a drive with the squad, as many drivers have used the yearly test as merely an opportunity to try a top level endurance machine. Juan Pablo Montoya trying his hand in a works Porsche 919 last season comes immediately to mind, but the news will no doubt be a positive shot in the arm to Kubica and his career so sadly cut short just when it looked like the driver was destined to become one of the top names in Formula One.

It will be interesting to see how Kubica responds to the opportunity, with a debut podium in the Renault Sport Trophy series already to his name it looks like the Pole has lost non of his track racing ability in his enforced five year absence.

Check out the WEC sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest endurance racing news in the world of the World Endurance Championship. Head over and join in the conversation today.

Would you like to see Kubica take part in endurance racing next season? Do you think the Polish driver could have gone on to win a Formula One World Championship? Let us know in the comments section below!

Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham · Nov 19, 2016

He's only 31?! Damn! He had such a promising career.

I would love to see him in the WEC, but LMP1 is not the category for him. ByKolles are in no mans land at the moment

I would love to see him in Formula E though. That would be cool!

Sicario Del Toro · Nov 19, 2016

He's a class act , buckets full of talent, this would be great news .

Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham · Nov 19, 2016

Paul Jeffrey said:
Do you think the Polish driver could have gone on to win a Formula One World Championship?

He could have won in 2008 in BMW developed the car all the way through the season

paracletus · Nov 19, 2016

Always rated as a tremendous f1 driver - easily up there with your hamiltons, vettels etc.
DC material.
Good to see kubica taking part in racing again.

Deleted member 130869 · Nov 20, 2016

Kubica was one of my favorites and the one I cheered for the most at the time. I really hope he's successful here and is able to land a drive at a prime LMP1 team in the near future. So absurdly naturally talented, as stated before right up there with Lewis and Sebastian in skill.

Rodent · Nov 20, 2016

Hope he does well, if he has indeed returned to form I hope we see him in a works teams soon enough, he deserves a drive that can win.

Daniel Monteiro · Nov 20, 2016

He did win the WRC2 in 2013, that is no mean feat by itself

Jorge Villar · Nov 20, 2016

Supposedly the new regulations will work towards making privateer teams closer to official LMP1 cars. We will see.

antirussia81 · Nov 20, 2016

Jorge Villar said:
Supposedly the new regulations will work towards making privateer teams closer to official LMP1 cars. We will see.

They need to do this, especially after Audi's withdrawal.

fortyfivekev · Nov 20, 2016

He should definitely be on any list of unfulfilled talent although his injuries could easily have been much worse. I don't think he is able to drive single seaters anymore because of the limited mobility in his arm and the cramped cockpit but hopefully he can be successful in sportscars.

Runic · Nov 20, 2016

paracletus said:
Always rated as a tremendous f1 driver - easily up there with your hamiltons, vettels etc.
DC material.
Good to see kubica taking part in racing again.

IMO he's a lot better than Vettel Hamilton.

fortyfivekev · Nov 20, 2016

Guess he still has some speed.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127201/kubica-on-the-pace-in-wec-lmp1-test

Deleted member 130869 · Nov 20, 2016

Runic said:
IMO he's a lot better than Vettel Hamilton.

He is both minus the moaning and mental breakdowns.

thewarmer · Nov 20, 2016

Jorge Villar said:
Supposedly the new regulations will work towards making privateer teams closer to official LMP1 cars. We will see.

Yes that would be good . if we had a return to the days when private teams could buy equal quality machines like in the days of the Porsche 962 Group C cars.
Back then none factory teams could win premium events like Le-Mans even against the works teams
That was Porsche policy then to sell same spec racing machine's to private teams.

So one way or another a Porsche would end up winning or been on the podium.
its served Porsche well with cars like the 917 . 935 through to the 962 series.

Other less Factory's did the same but not on the scale of Porsche.

But it may just be the case that that costs of building Customer cars would be to high for Porsche these days & also the cars would be to complex to maintain to the same levels has the full factory team at the same level over a complete season

The older cars were much simpler to run & maintain think that is a major limiting factor with the current rules.

Nick Gregory · Nov 20, 2016

thewarmer said:
Yes that would be good . if we had a return to the days when private teams could buy equal quality machines like in the days of the Porsche 962 Group C cars.

Seems like what LMP2 is achieving these days.

Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham · Nov 20, 2016

Kubica was half a second quicker than the fastest time set by the car all weekend Compeltely mugged off the other ByKolles drivers

otto · Nov 21, 2016

Good news

Kurei · Nov 21, 2016

Audi's withdrawl, LMP2 stepping up, Kubica testing the waters after Montoya did earlier, I should probably start watching WEC more actively...

Also sweet pic of the car.

Matheus Machado · Nov 21, 2016

Azure Flare said:
Seems like what LMP2 is achieving these days.

LMP2 never really had factory teams tbh. So that move isn't the same.

thewarmer said:
But it may just be the case that that costs of building Customer cars would be to high for Porsche these days & also the cars would be to complex to maintain to the same levels has the full factory team at the same level over a complete season

The older cars were much simpler to run & maintain think that is a major limiting factor with the current rules.

I think the current move that WEC is having to make privateer fight for an improved LMP2 category and let LMP1s be the beasts of works teams is good. What they need to do is make the championship attractive to new brands to race and even return. Audi's move was kind of predicted as it is nonsense for VW to keep two teams there.

WEC is getting more and more popular, they just need to figure out a way to keep LMP1s alive.