Robert Kubica hails his first day in a modern Formula 1 car with the R.S.17 as a ‘fantastic feeling’ after racking up 142 laps over the course the day.
Having slowly made built up to this day with two prior tests in the 2012 E20 Renault, the 32-year old finally got his opportunity to wrestle a fully fledged up-to-date F1 car around a track and ended the day fourth fastest with a 1m18.572s laptime.
It was not all smooth sailing for him as on first outing he clipped the side of the garage door and knocked down Nico Hulkenberg’s garage sign from the race weekend much to the amusement and dismay of those surrounding the Renault garage.
“It was a fantastic feeling for me to be here today in the R.S.17 and also it was amazing to see so many fans come to see me out on track, so thank you to all of them,” Kubica said.
“It has been an incredible journey to this point, where I have answered many questions to myself. I learnt a lot about the latest generation car, as there are a reasonable amount of differences between it and the Formula 1 cars I have driven in the past. The car is certainly wider than before.”
A huge crowd sat in the grandstands opposite the Renault garage with numerous banners and signs for the Polish driver, including chants and cheers whenever he drove by.
While the Pole may not know what is in store next with regards to his F1 return, he does he feel he managed to get on top of everything he needed to learn and gave feedback on a number of areas which included the tyres and hybrid system.
“I was able to work through the team’s programme methodically and I think we made good progress,” added Kubica. “Certainly my understanding of the R.S.17 and the 2017 tyres came on a lot. After today, it’s too early to say what the next step might be. For now, I owe a big thanks to everyone at Renault Sport Formula One Team for making this test happen.”
Renault’s sporting director Alan Permane gave his thoughts on Kubica’s performance, commenting: “It’s been a full and productive day with over two Grands Prix worth of laps completed. We worked through a comprehensive programme and Robert was able to give us great feedback.
“The R.S.17 ran faultlessly, even with the extreme temperatures we faced out on track. We have accumulated a lot of data over the past two days to add to the lessons learnt in the Grand Prix here, so we have scope to further optimise the car looking to the next Grands Prix after the summer shutdown.”
