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Quote from Mazdaratie :Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory.

Oh yeah sorry it's UK only
Quote from Juzaa :You didn't say anything about a full season. ''Would 3 Finnish F1 drivers be the most in F1 at any one time?'' Salo, Häkkinen, and JJ Lehto were all three racing in Japanese and Australian GPs in -94.

So it would be a record. 3 Finnish drivers in full season of F1, assuming all the drivers do all of the races of course.


In regards to Kubica, I think he has ALOT more natural/raw talent than Massa, so if he manages to get back in F1, I think he will be just as quick.

Just think, it didn't affect Lauda when he got his ear burnt off.
Lauda was up and around quite quickly and back in the car within 6 weeks. Robert will, depending on how bad the nerve damage was, have to relearn how to use his hand. It's not a relevant comparison. Neither is Massa though - that was a head injury.

Quite apart from that, he has not done any training apart from physiotherapthy for nearly a year and much of that time has been spent in hospital. It will take months to get back into good enough shape to do serious F1 driving, by which time he could be nearly 2 years out of the car. I think he only did one test on Pirelli and the tyres have evolved a great deal since then.

He has a long way to go. I very much doubt he would walk into a Red Bull, McLaren or Ferrari straight away.
The amount of people who thought Kubica would come back in 2011 or 2012 has always confused me. It was pretty clear that his injuries were horrific, and that even if his hand became functional again, that his recovery would be a long struggle. LRGP clearly did want to help him, but not at the expense of the team. Kimi is a gamble, and personally I don't think he will be up to much, but it's a better gamble than Kubica's recovery would have been.
Quote from Storm_Cloud :Lauda was up and around quite quickly and back in the car within 6 weeks. Robert will, depending on how bad the nerve damage was, have to relearn how to use his hand. It's not a relevant comparison. Neither is Massa though - that was a head injury.

With both Massa AND Lauda, both their accidents were within F1. Roberts accident was in Rally which is these days one of the most dangerous motorsports to partake in, they had a mental barrier to overcome, Kubica's barrier is physical. As long as his hand works on a steering wheel (which I'm sure it does already) then I'm pretty sure he'll be as quick as ever.
Blueflame - seriously, stop posting.

Laura, Massa and Kubica all had (have) mental AND physical issues. Lauda lost several pints of blood (plasma at least) in his return races, and had a slightly more dangerous era to compete in than the unthinkably safe today. Massa had the least physical issues, but who knows what the skull damage did to reflexes, eye coordination etc. Not enough to fail his F1 medical, but maybe enough to stop him competing at the front (~0.2% change for instance).

Kubica has a difficult task ahead. Not only has he got to, in the very depths of his psyche, not be worried about crashing again - which I doubt any normal person can manage, but he also has to get the arm, the nerves, the muscles and the brain all working in unison. If he loses @0.2% ability, then it's the difference between a great and an also ran.
Quote from tristancliffe :Blueflame - seriously, stop posting.

Laura, Massa and Kubica all had (have) mental AND physical issues. Lauda lost several pints of blood (plasma at least) in his return races, and had a slightly more dangerous era to compete in than the unthinkably safe today. Massa had the least physical issues, but who knows what the skull damage did to reflexes, eye coordination etc. Not enough to fail his F1 medical, but maybe enough to stop him competing at the front (~0.2% change for instance).

Kubica has a difficult task ahead. Not only has he got to, in the very depths of his psyche, not be worried about crashing again - which I doubt any normal person can manage, but he also has to get the arm, the nerves, the muscles and the brain all working in unison. If he loses @0.2% ability, then it's the difference between a great and an also ran.

It's all comparable we are talking about 2 drivers that were injured severely and came back, Kubica is no different. We also don't know to what the full extent of damage done to his arm was. So to suggest he has x ammount of rehabilitation is speculation.
Too many careers have been destroyed by injuries, the only advantage kubica has is a modern rehab program to heal it.

I can see kubica coming back but it might take half a season to regain form, if he's fast off the bat then my expectations of him will be blown out the water.
Quote from Mustafur :Too many careers have been destroyed by injuries, the only advantage kubica has is a modern rehab program to heal it.

I can see kubica coming back but it might take half a season to regain form, if he's fast off the bat then my expectations of him will be blown out the water.

This. I can count at least Panis and Massa who had more competitive futures ahead of them before they had an accident that badly affected their performance and their careers.
It's like the new meaning of "death" in Formula 1 (at least for me, and before I put on the flame coat, this is just a metaphor!!)
Quote from Senninha25 :This. I can count at least Panis and Massa who had more competitive futures ahead of them before they had an accident that badly affected their performance and their careers.
It's like the new meaning of "death" in Formula 1 (at least for me, and before I put on the flame coat, this is just a metaphor!!)

You could add Brundle to that list. Smashed his ankles to pieces in his first year, which up to that point had been pretty stellar considering the car he was driving.
Quote from Storm_Cloud :You could add Brundle to that list. Smashed his ankles to pieces in his first year, which up to that point had been pretty stellar considering the car he was driving.

But Brundle still managed to give Schumacher a tough time in 1992, and he still got some good results in his career while driving mostly crap cars, so I wouldn't give Brundle as big an emphasis as Panis and Massa (a very good point is the fact that Brundle never won a race)...maybe Barrichello after Imola 1994, after some opinions I've read on other forums, as he was hyped by Brazil and Portugal as the future Senna when he got into Jordan for 1993 (but haven't found much stuff that proved his talent before his crash).
Neither did JJ Lehto from his testing crash. But that's really just a question of coming back too soon.
Only driver I can really think of that recovered from a massive crash in recent times is Michael Schumacher......
And of course, Mikka Hakkinen.
Mark webber was the last driver to get an injury and recover all though this year it remains to be seen
the issue for kubica, apart from any mental block, is going to be his thumb and fingers, it's one thing to be able to grip a wheel again, another to perform the digit gymnastics todays F1 cars require, a good example being button's attempts to reset his KERS system in a recent race.

renault may well be able to move all the regularly used buttons / rotary selectors to the left side but there will be times in the race when multiple menu selections require both hands to be used whilst still steering and working the gear change paddles, it's possible you put both clutches on the left and make the gear change a pull push arrangement but it all increases the chances of a mistake whilst driving at the limit, that was one of the reasons the F duct was banned, the drivers felt it was unsafe to have one hand not holding the wheel yet kubica may have to rely on his injured hand / arm to steer whilst his left changes gears and adjusts brake bias, fuel map, kers program etc or deploys KERS and / or DRS all whilst battling with other cars.

i hope i'm wrong but i personally doubt he'll ever regain the absolute speed he had before his accident for anymore than a short run of laps
Quote from Congressman Carlos Ramos of the Venezuelan :The financial situation of the Williams Formula 1 team is probably a matter of great concern to its owners, employees, and commercial sponsors. However, there is no acceptable explanation as per why 28 million Venezuelans have to foot the bill, to simply help Williams survive. I understand why you would take money from anyone, though it is impossible for me to explain, to my constituents and countrymen, why on earth we are wasting money on your team.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com ... ble-brewing-in-venezuela/

Well well well... I never thought I'd see the day I agree with a congressman of Venezuela.
Ahhh it sucks this moment when you realize that Formula One season is actually over. Not that championship was won, there is just no more races, nothing to look forward to at all for next 3 months.

Formula One Season 2011
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