Robert Kubica is up to his old tricks. In an interview with Formule 1 Race Report, the Polish driver again took a pop at his own team:
“In the last two or three months, I had the feeling that the team and I were no longer pursuing the same goal.”
He’s a real team player, huh.
To be fair to Kubica, he has a point - he wanted to go for the drivers’ title, whereas BMW wanted to focus on 2009. Still, although there’s nothing wrong with showing ambition, he needs to learn to stop criticising his employers, or they’ll lose patience with him.
Yesterday Gridcrasher created something of an online storm by suggesting that BMW Sauber’s 2009 prototype is ugly. A controversial statement, obviously - maybe it’s because we used wonky-faced Robert Kubica as a benchmark?
Well, vindication just roared into town, in the form of Christian Klien. The Austrian test driver (pictured) agrees with us that the new BMW is a dog.
“I never saw such a sexy car,” Klien said after testing in Barcelona yesterday (message to our sensitive Polish readers: Klien is making a joke - you see, he doesn’t really think it’s sexy. Clever, eh). “It looks very, very new to everybody.
“To me, for the moment, it’s the worst (looking) Formula One car I have ever seen. It just doesn’t fit together.”
However, in the interests of fairness, can we add that BMW’s new car is uglier than all non-Polish F1 drivers - including Lewis Hamilton. There, we said it.
BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica is the ugliest F1 driver… and now he has the ugliest car to drive. BMW’s 2009 prototype, unveiled at Barcelona yesterday, is out of proportion, much like Polish Bob’s features.
Kubica has quickly earned a reputation as the moodiest driver on the grid. Throughout the season we heard him arguing with his crew over the team radio, while paddock rumours suggest he regularly criticises his team and disagrees with his race engineer.
Even BMW boss Mario Thiessen admitted that Kubica was a difficult man to work with:
“Robert was in top form and if the car was not quick enough he took it as a personal affront. The working relationship was therefore not always easy, but his unreserved determination to achieve success commands respect.”
There is no doubt that Bobby K is a seriously talented driver, but perhaps he is too serious and takes things too personally? His selfish personality doesn’t seem well-suited to enduring in a team environment - he clearly lost patience with BMW as the season wore on, no doubt because he felt that the team’s decision to focus on their 2009 car may have cost him a world title.
Fair enough, you might say - what driver wouldn’t be pissed off in the same circumstances. But there seems to be a feeling within F1 that Kubica won’t ever become world champion unless he learns to work with a team, not against them. Take a chill pill, Robert - your team wants you to succeed and you need to realise that.
Ferrari won the constructors’ championship, but does that mean they were the best team in 2008? No, it doesn’t. In fact, given the massive resources at the Scuderia’s disposal, you might even argue that they underperformed - with the best car on the grid, and two of the best drivers, perhaps they should have won the driver’s title too, as well as winning the constructors title by a bigger margin.
Looking down the grid, we find teams that punched above their weight, admirably: Toro Rosso had a wonderful season, outperforming the senior Red Bull outfit. BMW Sauber were remarkably consistent and could have done even better, had they not decided to switch focus to their 2009 car halfway through the campaign. Renault started slowly but finished stronger than anyone, while Toyota had a solid year too.
Anyway, a few names to conjure with there. What say you?
Don’t let the clean-shaven appearance fool you, the chap enjoying an Oktoberfest beverage in the picture above is F1’s very own scruffbag Nick Heidfeld. The lady with whom he is clinking glasses is wife Patricia Papen - unlike some (Cora Schumacher), she rocks the natural look and tends to keep out of the limelight.
We’re not surprised that Quick Nick hasn’t yet figured out how to use his BMW Sauber’s steering wheel - check out how many dials, switches and buttons are on it. Damn, that looks complicated.
