Felipe Massa will be disappointed after yesterday’s Chinese Grand Prix, but he will not be as crestfallen as Robert Kubica. The BMW driver has been the dark horse of the 2008 World Championship campaign, but after finishing just sixth at Shanghai he is now out of contention for the title.
The Pole will be especially disappointed because the Chinese Grand Prix was one of his worst results of the year, and it came at a time when he needed one of his very best. Kubica drove brilliantly in the race itself but was struggling to recover from his lowest qualifying performance of the season.
The fact that sixth will be a disappointment for Kubica is testament to the phenomenal year that he has enjoyed. With the championship focus firmly on Ferrari and McLaren it is easy to forget that Kubica has been mixing it with the championship leaders all season. The Chinese Grand Prix was only the sixth race this year in which he has been outscored by both Hamilton and Massa. That is a significant statistic because it shows just how consistent Kubica has been. Even though he has only taken one race win he has usually been able to finish ahead of at least one of the main championship contenders.
It might also be worth noting that Kubica has scored just one point less this year than Mika Hakkinen did to win the 1999 World Title. He has driven brilliantly for the past twelve months now and has done so against the might of the sports two largest teams.
Kubica has slowly been racking up strong results and has largely fallen under the radar. His experience would be similar to Felipe Massa’s in 2007. The Brazilian entered the final round last year with an almost identical set of statistics to what he has right now, but was totally forgotten in the hype surrounding the other three contenders.
If not for a few poorly timed Safety Car periods, Kubica would still be in contention for this year’s title as well. He will fall under the radar again over the next week as Hamilton and Massa rightly absorb the limelight in Sao Paulo, but it is worth having a look at just how consistent and solid his driving has been this year.
If you’ve wondered, like me, exactly how Kubica stayed in title contention for as long as he did, here is the answer.
Australian Grand Prix – DNF
Kubica qualified on the front row, missing out on the top spot by the tiniest of margins. He would have taken pole if not for a lurid slide in the middle of his hot lap. He challenged Lewis Hamilton hard for the lead in the opening few corners but had to settle for second, which turned into fourth behind Kovalainen and Raikkonen after the first round of pitstops. BMW switched his strategy behind the Safety Car which dropped him further down the field, but he was taken out by Kazuki Nakajima before he had the chance to regain positions. A decent haul of points, but not a podium, went begging.
Malaysian Grand Prix – 2nd
Kubica set the sixth fastest time on Saturday but started fourth when both McLarens were penalised for qualifying misdemeanours. He jumped Jarno Trulli into the first corner and stayed in third until Massa took himself out of the race via a gravel trap. He finished just twenty seconds behind Raikkonen who took victory, and his pace was genuine because he was the last of the leaders to make his pitstop.
Bahrain Grand Prix – 3rd
Kubica got the pole position that he narrowly missed in Australia, and journalists had a field day with ‘Pole on Pole’ headlines. He dropped to second behind Felipe Massa before the first corner after getting too much wheelspin at the start, and then mistook oil on his tyres for a puncture on lap three and fell behind Kimi Raikkonen as a result. He finished third just a few seconds behind the Ferraris and his podium gave BMW the Constructors Championship lead.
Spanish Grand Prix – 4th
Fourth place on the grid in Barcelona was really third for Kubica because Alonso was only ahead of him thanks to a low fuel load. Robert was jumped at the start by a typically aggressive Lewis Hamilton and stayed behind the Brit all race, only gaining a position when Fernando made his pitstop. It was the first race of 2008 where both Massa and Hamilton finished ahead of him.
Turkish Grand Prix – 4th
Another solid haul of points was Kubica’s reward for being ‘best of the rest’ all weekend. He qualified fifth behind the Ferraris and McLarens, and presumably would have stayed there if not for Kovalainen’s problems during the race. He made a great start and was in third by the end of lap one, but Kimi Raikkonen got his place back after the first round of pitstops.
Monaco Grand Prix – 2nd
The Pole qualified in fifth again but inherited the lead after Kovalainen stalled, Raikkonen was penalised, Hamilton hit the wall, and Massa ran wide on lap 15. He maintained a small advantage over Felipe before making an early pitstop. Once the other leaders made their first stops much later in the wet race, Kubica was back in third. He got ahead of Massa in the dying stages when he took advantage of a Ferrari tactical error by pitting for dry tyres two laps earlier than the Brazilian. He moved to within six points of Lewis Hamilton’s championship lead.
Canadian Grand Prix – 1st
The race at Montreal was always going to be a good round for BMW and Kubica, but it turned into something quite special when Lewis Hamilton took himself and Kimi Raikkonen out of contention. Kubica lined up on the front row at a circuit that suited his car, but could not keep up with Hamilton in the early stages. He closed up to Lewis when the Safety Car emerged on lap 16 and was able to jump the McLaren in the pitstops, although a red light prevented him from rejoining the circuit immediately. As Kubica waited for the pitlane exit to open he heard a thud, and just like that Hamilton and Raikkonen were out of the running. The Pole rejoined in eighth place behind the one-stoppers and his real fight was against teammate Heidfeld who had taken the lead amongst the mayhem. Kubica got ahead of the sister BMW just after Heidfeld made his solitary pitstop and started building up a margin big enough to rejoin in first after his second stop. The win looked like it was going to Heidfeld because Kubica was held up by Timo Glock during his fight through the field, but Robert ended up lapping two seconds per lap quicker than his teammate right before his final stop. It was enough to give Robert the lead, and the win. It was Kubica’s first victory, an honour he shared with his team, and it put him at the top of the championship table.
French Grand Prix – 5th
Kubica qualified seventh at Magny Cours but started fifth thanks to a fresh set of penalties handed out to the McLaren drivers. He enjoyed a thrilling wheel to wheel battle with Fernando Alonso for fourth on the opening lap but only got ahead of the Spaniard during the first round of pitstops. Robert was unable to hold onto fourth until the end of the Grand Prix because he was passed in the second round of stops by a recovering Kovalainen. He ended up just a few seconds off the podium.
British Grand Prix – DNF
Qualifying was a disaster for Kubica as he picked up a technical problem that prevented him from setting a time in Q3. He started tenth but moved into eighth before the end of lap one. At the end of lap 34 he was in a solid third place, having overtaken Trulli, Piquet, and Kovalainen. Tactical blunders for Raikkonen and Alonso assisted Kubica’s rise through the field. A podium was looking very good, but the Pole aquaplaned into the gravel when the rain was heaviest. He had already survived a few moments on the grass, suggesting he was not totally at ease in the conditions.
German Grand Prix – 7th
Kubica took full advantage of the first lap mayhem to move up from seventh to fourth at the expense of Raikkonen, Alonso, and Trulli. He stayed there until mid distance at which point he was closing in on third position. However, Timo Glock hit the wall and the resulting Safety Car played into the hands of one-stopping Piquet and Heidfeld. They demoted Kubica to fifth, who then dropped to seventh when Kovalainen and Raikkonen took advantage of his worn tyres in the late stages. It was the second time this year the Safety Car had worked against him.
Hungarian Grand Prix – 8th
The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend started well for Robert Kubica with a solid fourth place on the grid. However, his race started poorly from the dirty side of the racetrack and he fell behind Timo Glock off the line. Kubica did not have a big fuel load so also lost out to Alonso, Piquet, Raikkonen, and Trulli who pitted after him during the first round of pitstops. This left him in ninth, which became eighth when Massa’s engine gave up at the very end. BMW citied tyre management for their poor performance as Heidfeld had not fared any better.
European Grand Prix – 3rd
Kubica’s return to the podium was well deserved although he finished a long way behind Massa’s victorious Ferrari. He qualified second and pressured the leaders hard into the first few corners, but settled for third and dropped back significantly when a plastic bag got caught under his car. He led for a lap during the pitstops but otherwise stayed third for the entire race.
Belgian Grand Prix – 6th
Heidfeld led BMW’s charge at Spa Francorchamps as Kubica could only manage eighth in qualifying, complaining of poor balance. It didn’t get any better at the start when the usual La Source skirmish pushed him down to tenth. He overtook Piquet on lap two, and then got into a battle with Heikki Kovalainen which he won when the McLaren driver crashed into Mark Webber. There was a problem with BMW’s fuel rig in the final round of pitstops which pushed Kubica behind Heidfeld, and this proved crucial when the rain fell in the dying stages. Heidfeld’s favourable position gave him the option of pitting for intermediates, leaving Kubica to finish the race on dry tyres. The final lap was as crazy for Kubica as it was for anyone else. He overtook Sebastien Bourdais, but lost positions to Heidfeld and Alonso. A podium was only possible for one BMW driver at Spa and it was not the championship contender who took the spoils.
Italian Grand Prix – 3rd
Kubica struggled in the wet qualifying and missed Q3 for only the second time in his career. However, he was able to choose his own strategy from eleventh on the grid and opted for a one stop race which enabled him to finish a stunning third. His solitary stop was timed perfectly with the drying track meaning he did not need to make an extra visit to the pits like everyone else for intermediate tyres. This good fortune partly made up for the rain that had cost him dearly in Belgium.
Singapore Grand Prix – 11th
The Safety Car conspired to ruin Kubica’s weekend again in Singapore as he was looking good for a strong podium finish until it came out on lap 15. This was a major problem for the BMW driver who only had 15 laps of fuel in his car. He had to make his first stop whilst the pitlane was ‘closed’ and subsequently earned a ten second stop-go penalty that ruined his afternoon. He had previously been holding down fourth after making contact and pushing Kovalainen out of his way at turn one. The penalty pushed him to the back of the field and although he overtook Massa before the Brazilian’s final pitstop, Robert had an uneventful run to eleventh. It should have been a much better result given his previous strong position, and the problem experienced by the Ferrari drivers.
Japanese Grand Prix – 2nd
Kubica would have found it hard not to laugh at the first corner in Japan. He started the race in seventh but took the lead at turn one as all the drivers in front of him bounced off each other and ran wide. He held the lead until the first round of pitstops where Renault short-filled Fernando Alonso to give the Spaniard first place. The former champion then produced a stunning set of fastest laps to give himself enough margin to claim victory ahead of the BMW. Kubica’s second place came under serious threat from Kimi Raikkonen who pulled alongside the Pole a number of times on the main straight. Robert drove defensively enough to hold off Raikkonen until he cooked his tyres. Kubica said the result felt better than his win in Canada since his car was no match for his rivals.
Chinese Grand Prix – 6th
The BMW was a handful for Kubica in qualifying and the best he could manage was twelfth (which became eleventh after Webber’s penalty) almost half a second behind his teammate in Q2. Kubica made the most of his lot though and jumped from eleventh to eighth at the start thanks to a collision between Trulli and Bourdais. The only advantage to his poor grid position was free choice of strategy, so BMW fuelled Kubica for a long first stint which helped him get ahead of Vettel. He also took advantage of Kovalainen’s misfortune and finished an impressive sixth. It may have been a solid drive with a difficult car, but it was not enough to keep his World Championship dream alive. Like the rest of his team Kubica can now switch focus to next year.
If BMW can make the most of the new 2009 Formula One regulations, Robert Kubica will be a force to reckon with.
And he knows it.