The FIA carried out random anti-doping tests during testing at Jerez last week (In 2005, F1 improved its drugs testing programme to meet World Anti-Doping Agency standards).
On Thursday at the Spanish circuit, Ferrari’s two race drivers, McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and Toro Rosso new boy Sebastien Buemi had to report to the FIA transporter to supply urine samples, the Swiss newspaper Blick reported.
Buemi revealed that he was also tested at the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix, when he was a test driver for Red Bull.
“Some weeks later two physicians arrived at my parents’ house in Augle (Switzerland) at six in the morning and asked me for another sample.”
As far as we know, no F1 driver has ever failed a doping test. In 2002, F3000 driver Tomas Enge tested postitive for cannabis (yeah, that helps you drive faster); the points he was stripped of cost him the F3000 title that year.
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.
Watch as Robert Kubica unlaps himself, then Seb Vettel takes fifth. You can almost sense the panic in Lewis as Vettel threatens to ruin his title chances.
You may have noticed that the 22,000-odd votes we have received on our Who is your driver of the season? poll represents an ever-so-slightly higher voter turnout than we are used to. The sudden interest in democracy does not appear to be fueled by an overwhelming feeling that Robert Kubica was the best driver in the F1 2008 season (although he is obviously a very strong contender), but because Polish fans have hijacked the poll. We were aware that Speedway is huge in Poland, but we had no idea Kubica has stirred up such an F1 frenzy in the central European nation.
The Canadian grand Prix winner has confirmed another year with BMW Sauber, but do you think he deserves to be in a faster car? Should he join Lewis Hamilton at McLaren? Let us know below (preferably in English!)…
After one of the greatest F1 seasons of all time - in terms of drama, at least - we have one question: who’s your driver of the season? Lewis Hamilton won the title, but do you think another driver had a better season in a lesser car?
