[dexterljohnthefinanceguy]

I agree with Kubica. They should have focused on him and fight for the WDC when they got a sniff. Instead, they decided to focus their efforts on a driver who will likely never win a race, but oh - he is German.
And where are they now?

[mylittlejewelaa]

Kubica is just whingey. He's always moaning, and never happy with anything. I guarantee that in 2 years time he'll be moaning that his Renault wasn't competitive or that his wing mirrors were 2g too heavy so he couldn't drive the car. I'd hate to have him in my team if I was an F1 boss.

As for Canada 2008, we could argue all day. In my view, if BMW had treated them equally then Heidfeld would have won that race. Fair enough they wanted two different strategies to cover all bases but it seems unfair as Heidfeld was racing better in that particular race but was forced to let Bobby past.

But Renault F1 boss Eric Boullier and technical director James Allison are talking about Kubica only in good words. Just some links:
http://www.f1technical.net/news/14584
http://www.planet-f1.com/news/18227/...ault-s-Allison

Kubica is very demanding from the team but also from himself. He is also sincere and talking directly what he thinks. We see that he is still disappointed by what had happended in 2008. He has the right to be disappointed and I can't understand why the team at that moment didn't concentrated on the fighting for the title.

And about Canadian GP.. Correct me If I am wrong.. Kubica passed Heidfeld one lap after end of the safety car. He planed one more pit stop, while Heidfeld decided not to stop. So in lighter car Kubica was much more faster. Heidfeld was asked to give a position for Kubica. We don't know if Kubica managed to pass him without team orders, maybe yes, maybe no. But he was about 1 sec faster per lap and managed to get enough advantage before his 2nd pit stop. So it wasn't team orders to hand in the win, when the team consider points table, but to give a posistion to the faster car.

[Attaniuri]

Kubica may have a point with his comments but its very unprofessional IMO to air this in public. BMW did take a chance on him when he was effectively dumped by Renault's test programme, and they did have an option on Vettel in late 2006. Obviously Vettel was a tad too young and Kubica was a sound option. I have found Kubica to be one of the most critical drivers in recent times and has often publically slated his team, most notably Monaco 2008 where he accused them of deliberately scuppering his chances. I expect drivers to be emotional shortly after incidents and say things in the heat of the moment like Rubens in Spain last year, but this is well thought out and unnecessary IMO.

With all this aside, he does seem to escape the widespread criticism other(s) seem to get in this sport.

[MedicineForUs]

He has spoken his mind and nice to hear his views rather than some manufactured corporate gobbledy-gook.

BMW did shoot themselves in the foot by not throwing themselves behind him. If they gave him a quick car the year afterwards then there would have been some justification but it was a dog. As far as Kubica see it, he had a realistic chance at the title and they pulled the rug out from under his feet.

If it were me, I would be p*ssed too.

[myspauyijbv]

Kubica may have a point with his comments but its very unprofessional IMO to air this in public.

I disagree. He's left the team, and the team's left the sport, so he doesn't have an opportunity to air his grievences behind closed doors as would normally be proper behaviour. It seems that almost everybody has a negative story about BMW's most recent foray into F1, and Kubica is no exception.

[orison]

BMW did shoot themselves in the foot by not throwing themselves behind him.

IIRC BMW had a (3 year?) plan. Something like year 1 - podiums, year 2- wins, year three - championship. Unfortunately for Kubica him going for the championship didn't fit into the plans for 2008

[MedicineForUs]

IIRC BMW had a (3 year?) plan. Something like year 1 - podiums, year 2- wins, year three - championship. Unfortunately for Kubica him going for the championship didn't fit into the plans for 2008

Like it. Like it a lot.

[Soadiassy]

IIRC BMW had a (3 year?) plan. Something like year 1 - podiums, year 2- wins, year three - championship. Unfortunately for Kubica him going for the championship didn't fit into the plans for 2008

Yep. Although I think it was:

Year 1, 2006 - Points/respectability (achieved)
Year 2, 2007 - Podiums (achieved a year early, but regularly in 2007 too)
Year 3, 2008 - Win(s) (achieved in Canada)
Year 4, 2009 - Championship (*makes noises of toilet flushing, etc. you get the idea*)

Motor sport, like any sport, is cyclical, you will suffer peaks and troughs and you can't make these sort of rigid plans, yes you should keep progressing, but so will your rivals!

As for Kubica, I don't actively root for him but I do have a lot of time for him as a person. For instance he was one of the few to speak out against the absurd "Two days before the day after tomorrow" style panic after Bahrain didn't turn out to be the slipstreaming wheel-to-wheel thriller that we're apparently supposed to expect.

[Narkeere]

There tends to be a lot of black-and-whitish opinions about matters in F1. And I think BMW's decision to concentrate early on 2009 is one of them. I don't think it's as simple as people like to draw it. IMO one of the important reasons was that the 2008 car was actually quite complicated, hard to set up and the development potential of it had reached pretty much an end - in terms of appearance the car seemed to have more winglets than anyone else. As we recall, BMW unveiled quite an aggressive car for 2008, while their 2009 challenger was quite conservative (perhaps too conservative?) just to have a good basis for long-term development and avoid hitting stagnation (which they managed with their 06-07 evolutionary cars). It looks like Sauber has made another turnaround for 2010 and the C29 is quite radical - and as we see, they suddenly don't fully understand, why the car isn't as quick as they expected it to be.

Let me put it simply: BMW would not have won the 2008 titles in any way, regardless of their decision to keep developing or not. They knew it, hence the decision. That 2009 didn't turn out quite as they expected, well that's another story...

[mylittlejewelaa]

I don't follow the F1 board that much, so perhaps someone can explain this to me.

How exactly is the team supposed to focus on one driver? Are they going to increase his skills or feel for the car? His racecraft? How he feels when he gets out of bed on a particular race morning?

Or is it the team's job to build the car and make the car as fast as possible? Aren't the two cars the team fields in every race essentially the same? Set ups different, yes. And perhaps one driver gets the latest development bits before the other. It's the same basic car though, right?

Crybaby drivers are a waste of everyone's time. He needs to find another profession. Of course, he'd be a crybaby there too.

I don't have a wisdom how f1 team function, but I think it's more much complicated than simple statement "they have the same cars". Team can build a car which fits more one driver than second, follow remarks given by one driver rather than second one, concentrate on solving problems of one driver etc. I read somewhere in the press that in 2008 Heidfeld had big problems in qualifying due to tyres performance, maybe they concentrated on this? Many, many times I heard drivers opinions that team support more on one driver than second. As I said before I don't have a knowledge how f1 team functions maybe somone who works/used to work in F1 team could explain it to us.

I don't think people from Renault consider Kubica as a crybaby and "waste of time" after how he performs (2nd in Australia, 4th in Malayisa, just 9 points less than leader in championship standings) this year...

[Goksiodiffeli]

No quotes at the moment. I'll search out the old Autosport from that race which I kept and post some tomorrow if you are still interested.

I am.

Sure that's why he needed the team to ask Heidfeld to let him by.

Proof?


Besides, even if BMW did ask Heidfeld to let Kubica through, it was only normal. Teammates who are on different strategies have been doing that forever. I remember Schumacher and Barrichello doing it several times. If Kubica had not gotten past Heidfeld, they simply would not have taken 1-2 finish. That said, I still have yet to see proof that Heidfeld was told to let Kubica through.

[Cucoulkrory]

Kubica is just whingey. He's always moaning, and never happy with anything. I guarantee that in 2 years time he'll be moaning that his Renault wasn't competitive or that his wing mirrors were 2g too heavy so he couldn't drive the car. I'd hate to have him in my team if I was an F1 boss.

As for Canada 2008, we could argue all day. In my view, if BMW had treated them equally then Heidfeld would have won that race. Fair enough they wanted two different strategies to cover all bases but it seems unfair as Heidfeld was racing better in that particular race but was forced to let Bobby past.

pretty much how I see it

[Cucoulkrory]

And what Lewis and the rest of your post have to do with this topic ? How many times do I have to ask to not to take threads off-topic ??? Haven't you read my last post on History Forum ?

[Gorlummm]

What's wrong with someone who speaks his mind? There's almost constant critizism on this board too, so why can't he.

And I kind of agree too, Kubica's WDC chances in 2008 had far greater potential than the ultimate result. Maybe he should have quit BMW after 2008, but I guess he didn't had much choise. He probably didn't expect such a poor 2009 car either.

[standaman]

I agree with Kubica. They should have focused on him and fight for the WDC when they got a sniff. Instead, they decided to focus their efforts on a driver who will likely never win a race, but oh - he is German.
And where are they now?

Kubica only ever won a race because the said German team decide to favor him over the said German driver. Facts do not support your theory.

[standaman]

What's wrong with someone who speaks his mind? didn't had much choise. He probably didn't expect such a poor 2009 car either.

Nothing as long as what he speaks isn't a bloody lie that is meant to make him look great while trashing those who brought him in F1 , gifted him a win that he could not win on his own and paid him a fortune to bad mouth them.

[JackTimQSR]

And other drivers who berate their team in public are unprofessional too?

Because I can think of one, who criticised his team in Australia, who you didn't voice such concerns about. You remember, don't you? I'll give you a clue....He queried who gave him a "freaking terrible" strategy.

Not to mention Prost calling the 1991 Ferrari "a dog" (note to the non-factual : Mansell never drove the car Prost referred to, and he actually called it "a truck") and being sacked for it, or him criticising Renault in 1983 for not developing the engine as well as BMW and being sacked for it.

It may have been considered "unprofessional" by his employers, but on both occasions he was absolutely right.

As is Kubica.

I have to agree with you, although I still consider it strange that Kubica should say how much more enjoyable it is fighting for points rather than wins. This is something I couldn't imagine a top-line driver such as Prost ever having done.

[JackTimQSR]

Kubica only ever won a race because the said German team decide to favor him over the said German driver. Facts do not support your theory.

Have you somehow been privy to the internal communications within BMW regarding this apparent conspiracy, then? I don't doubt that such things happen, but stating it as genuine, absolute, indisputable fact is taking things way too far.

[kertionderf]

He has spoken his mind and nice to hear his views rather than some manufactured corporate gobbledy-gook.

BMW did shoot themselves in the foot by not throwing themselves behind him. If they gave him a quick car the year afterwards then there would have been some justification but it was a dog. As far as Kubica see it, he had a realistic chance at the title and they pulled the rug out from under his feet.

If it were me, I would be p*ssed too.

Realistically they were not going to win a championship. Kubica is a good driver, not a great one. Full stop. He also has gone out of his way to take a shot at the old management of a team that is now not in the sport.

The message he just basically told the f1 world is that he doesn't take ownership for his own failures, and he will bad mouth anyone in the sport based on his lack of success.

You can be right, and he may be in this case, but there is something to be said by just keeping one's mouth shut until after he retires. IF I am looking for a driver, I am not going to hire a guy who will blame me if he doesn't do as well as he thinks he should. In short, why pay a guy to slag you 3 years later?

Besides, he had no problem with how BMW was run when they dumped JV to let him drive. I guess they were discriminating against him then too?

[boxcigsnick]

Now I'm all for a bit of BMW bashing as they represented everything wrong with F1 in the manufacturer era, but I do think Robert is being a touch unfair.

They gave you your break into the sport and provided you with your first (and so far only) victory. Yes, they didn't agree with pushing for 2008's title, and yes with hindsight that was a mistake its bad form to slag people who only ever did their best by you.