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Formula One
F1: Kubica Bullish On Renault Chances
Many expect the Renault F1 team to improve as the season progresses...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted March 08, 2010   Balen (BEL)
The 2011 driving destination of Robert Kubica remains a topic of discussion. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Robert Kubica says he thinks Renault is ‘heading in the right direction’ after its below-the-radar performance in winter testing.
Robert Kubica signed with Renault F1 late last year, but has a history with the team having tested a Formula One car for the team as a reward for winning the 2005 World Series by Renault title. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The team spent a lot of time running race fuel loads and didn’t set any headline lap times. While there are four obvious front running teams, many observers think that Renault could be a strong package as the season goes on.

“I feel as ready as I can be considering that winter testing has been so limited,” said Kubica in a team statement. “I’ve spent a lot of time with the team and we already have a strong working relationship, which means we can make the most of the time at the track. There has been a lot for me to learn and there are still questions to answer, but we got some good information from the tests and I tried to extract the maximum from every lap.

“It’s difficult to judge performance, but we’re heading in the right direction. We also haven’t run with all our new updates yet and there is another aero upgrade for Bahrain, which we hope will match the wind tunnel predictions and improve performance. Overall, it seems that all the top teams are quite close, but some have definitely hidden their full potential during testing and will also have more updates for Bahrain. So far, I think Ferrari and Mercedes look very strong.”

Kubica says that Renault has to develop faster than its rivals, something it’s often been able to do in the past.

“It will be a long season and our goal must be to develop faster than our competitors. There was a big gap to make up at the end of 2009 so we will have to take two steps forward if we want to catch the top teams. Performance is what we need – it’s always the best medicine.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter

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