Last weekend Robert Kubica returned to the cockpit of a Formula 1 car in an official session for the first time since he substituted for Kimi Raikkonen in last year’s Italian Grand Prix.
The Alfa Romeo reserve driver had sampled the team’s latest car during a brief, nine-lap run in pre-season testing, and again in a Pirelli tyre test more recently. He was surprised how different the car felt on hard tyres around the high-speed Circuit de Catalunya.
Q: How was the experience here?
Kubica: It was fine. I have to say, I got a bit of a different feeling to Imola, where I tested a couple of weeks ago, which was a bit shocking.
Okay, I was not expecting as easy of a car to drive as it was in Imola. Imola was, I think, one of the best, if not the best car I drove in my career, from feeling-wise and from the simplicity of driving. Of course, Barcelona is quite different, conditions are different, the track after all weekend is more rubbered, so everything comes to you.
Here it was quite shocking, also with hard compound, I never drove it, so the first time was not easy, I would say. Then of course I jumped to the soft compound, you don’t know what to expect, it is a one-lap tyre so you go [in] kind of blind.
All in all, I think it was a good session, I’m happy to see that, although I haven’t driven from Monza last year, in Imola it was okay straight away on the pace. Also here, I think the pace was good and I’m happy that the feeling is back to 2020, because last year I was struggling in the car, so this is promising.
Q: How did the car feel today compared to when you drove it beginning of the year?
Kubica: Well, at the beginning of the year, I didn’t drive it in Barcelona, I just did installation laps here in Barcelona. Of course the conditions are different and the car is quite different to the car we launched.
I can only compare it to last time I drove it in Imola a couple of weeks ago on a Pirelli test, which is…