Josef Newgarden made it two consecutive victories for himself in IndyCar. Team Penske also continues its world takeover in Australia. Teammates continue to run into each other in Formula One. The second-best American driver in GP3 made his Formula Two debut and scored points while the best American driver in GP3 finished on the podium. Audi continues to win endurance, races as does Yamaha. There was a NASCAR race. There were first-time winners in the World Rally Championship and Formula E and Formula E concluded its third season. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Can Kubica Return to Formula One?
Wednesday will be a blast from the past. Formula One teams will be on track testing at the Hungaroring for two days and there will be a fair share of young drivers hoping to impress someone enough to overlook the fact they are short a couple million Euros of budget and keep their number in the cell phone and maybe in the near future give them a call for a race seat because of talent and not bank account. One of those driver proved he had what it took to be in Formula One and he win races. Now he has to do it all over again.
It is somewhat fitting Robert Kubica's first time in a current Formula One car since early 2011 comes at the Hungaroring, the site where he made a somewhat surprise debut in 2006. Jacques Villeneuve had been sidelined after an accident at Hockenheim but he was already on the outs with BMW Sauber and the Pole, fresh off the 2005 Formula Renault 3.5 Series championship and 12 races running free practice one, slid right in and was fit for the job.
He made the final round of qualifying on his debut and held his own in the race, running in the points for most of the day and crossing the line in seventh position, one lap down. However, excess tire wear caused Kubica's car to weigh in two kilograms below the minimum weight and he was disqualified. Kubica's first career points wouldn't be that far off. He finished third two races later at Monza. He wouldn't score again in 2006 but for the entire 2007 season it felt BMW Sauber had found someone special.
Victory was a matter of when by the time the 2008 season started. He finished second at Malaysia and picked up his first career pole position at Bahrain. Felipe Massa beat him to turn one on the start and Kimi Räikkönen passed him on lap three but Kubica held on for third. A second at Monaco made it three podiums from the first six races and he was fourth in the championship, six points behind Lewis Hamilton.
The next race was Montreal. He started second to Hamilton. When Adrian Sutil broke down and caused a safety car Kubica and the rest of the leaders dived into the pit lane. Kubica came out ahead of Hamilton and he and Räikkönen were side-by-side at the end of the pit lane waiting for the red light to go green to release the cars back onto the race track. Hamilton, not anticipating stationary vehicles swerved to his left as he braked and ran into the back of Räikkönen's Ferrari. Kubica drove away unscathed. This left no real challengers for Kubica and while a handful of drivers cycled through the lead during pit stops, the race was all Kubica's for the final 28 laps as he took not only his first career grand prix victory but the World Drivers' Championship lead as well.
Kubica couldn't remain in the championship fight and he would eventually come home in fourth but he picked up three more podium finishes before the year was out. The underdog spirit wasn't enough in 2009. He had only two points from the first ten races and BMW announced its withdrawal from Formula One just after the tenth round at the Hungaroring. The tide turned for the second half of the season and he picked up 15 points in the final seven races with his best outing being a second-place finish at Interlagos.
Free agency came at the worst time for Kubica. He was free to go anywhere but he was not the top choice for any of the top teams. Mercedes took over Brawn GP and brought Michael Schumacher out of retirement and brought in Nico Rosberg from Williams. This left the reigning World Drivers' Champion Jenson Button without a ride and McLaren quickly snatched him up. Fernando Alonso replaced Räikkönen at Ferrari. Red Bull was set with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
His only option was Renault, a team a half a decade removed from world championship success but blackballed by the embarrassment of telling one of its drivers to crash on purpose during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Renault's future in Formula One was still in question. Despite all the uncertainty, Kubica finished second in his second start with the team at Melbourne and he would score points in the next seven races after that, which included a third-place finish at Monaco. He would finish third at Spa-Francorchamps later that season and end the year with 15 points finishes from 19 races and eighth in the championship.
Things were looking up for Kubica and 2011 started on a good note as he topped the final day of testing from Valencia. Then there is the turn in the story that we all know: A rally, an accident with a guard rail, severe damage to his right arm and for the last six years a Formula One career that appeared to have ended too soon. He was able to return to competition in the World Rally Championship and he won the WRC-2 championship in 2013. He started 2014 with a victory in the first round of the European Rally Championship. He was ready to take on the WRC big boys of Sébastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen. He was competitive. He won his fair share of stages, he might have won a rally or two if he hadn't had so many accidents, a few so violent you wondered why a man who frisked by death once would continue on. The victory never came and his final WRC start came at Monte-Carlo last year.
The last couple years were hard to watch. It is tough to watch a man you thought was good enough to win the World Drivers' Championship constantly be told he should give up competing altogether. Even the failed attempt to driver for ByKolles in the WEC was just another disappointing blow for a driver who had already suffered enough. I couldn't help but think in 30 years the youths learning about Formula One would look at Robert Kubica and only think of this mystery man who shined when it seemed he shouldn't have and won one race and led the championship after one race and not know the talent he actually had. He could have been world champion. I can't be the only one who watched from 2006 to 2011 and thought he was better than Rosberg.
Wednesday is a day we been waiting six and a half years for. Most of us probably thought it would never come. What comes after this test still remains unknown. We all know Renault isn't too particularly attached to Jolyon Palmer but has it been too long of a hiatus for Kubica to be anymore competitive than Palmer in the final nine races of this year? And if Kubica isn't a midseason replacement but rather the option for that second seat in 2018, how long would he have in Formula One? He will be 33 years old at the start of next season. How long of a leash would he be given before he is tossed aside? Is it all worth it if it only last a year? What about two years? I can't imagine it is realistic to expect him to stay in a Formula One race seat for three years or more if he can only bring the car home in eighth or ninth on a good day.
You just want to see a happy ending at this point. For six years, Kubica has tried to continue to be a world-class race car driver and he has accomplished quite a bit despite his physical limitations. He deserves an ending that encapsulates his perseverance. I find it fitting this test will happen at the Hungaroring, where he first stepped into the spotlight. This will either be the start of Kubica's second Formula One career or the ribbon to bring closure to a career interrupted when things were starting to swing in the right direction.
Champions From the Weekend
Lucas di Grassi won the 2016-17 Formula E Drivers' Championship after winning race one from Montreal and finishing seventh in race two while Sébastien Buemi was disqualified from race one for his car being underweight and failed to score any points in race two.
Renault e.dams picked up its third consecutive Formula E Teams' Championship.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden but did you know...
Sebastian Vettel won the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Jean-Éric Vergne won the second race of the Montreal ePrix. It was Vergne's first Formula E victory in 31st Formula E start, the most starts before a first victory in series history. It was also Vergne's first victory since September 17, 2011 when he won at Circuit Paul Ricard in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.
The #25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Haase, Markus Winkelhock and Jules Gounon won the 24 Hours of Spa.
The #21 Yamaha Factory Racing Team of Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark won the Suzuka 8 Hours. It is Nakasuga's third consecutive Suzuka 8 Hours victory, van der Mark's third career Suzuka 8 Hours victory and Lowes' second consecutive Suzuka 8 Hours victory.
Santiago Urrutia and Nico Jamin split the Indy Lights races from Mid-Ohio. Anthony Martin won the first and third Pro Mazda races and Victor Franzoni took the second race. Oliver Askew and Parker Thompson split the U.S. F2000 races.
Álvaro Parente swept the Pirelli World Challenge GT races from Mid-Ohio. Lawson Aschenbach and Ian James split the GTS races.
Oliver Rowland and Nobuharu Matsushita split the Formula 2 races from the Hungaroring. American and Connecticut's own Santino Ferrucci finished ninth in the first race of the weekend, scoring himself two points on his debut. Jack Aitken and Giuliano Alesi split the GP3 races. American and New York-native Ryan Tveter finished second to Alesi in the sprint race.
Kyle Busch won the NASCAR race from Pocono. Ryan Preece won the Grand National Series race from Iowa. Christopher Bell won the Truck race from Pocono.
Steve McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert split the Supercars races from Queensland Raceway.
Esapekka Lappi won Rally Finland, his first career WRC victory. With Sébastien Ogier retiring from the rally and Thierry Neuville finishing sixth and picking up three points from the power stage, the two drivers are tied on 160 points for the championship lead with four races remaining in 2017. Neuville holds the tiebreaker with three victories to Ogier's two.
Coming Up This Weekend
MotoGP is back! And that two-wheel circus will be at Brno.
NASCAR will be at Watkins Glen.
IMSA heads to Road America with all four classes in tow.
Fuji hosts Super GT.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
