30/11/2017
NEWS STORY
While fans, and many with the F1 paddock, believe Robert Kubica's return to the F1 grid would be one of the sport's true fairy-tales, others are no doubt looking to how they might best exploit the story.
However, none of this matters to the man himself, the man who almost lost an arm - indeed his life - when a guardrail pierced his car during a rally in early 2010 just three days after he had posted the fastest time of the opening pre-season test in Valencia.
In the weeks and months that followed, while the rest of us were wondering what sort of life the young Pole would lead following that horrific crash, the man himself was already planning his come back.
And come back he certainly did. Over the years that followed he enjoyed success in WR2 while looking at LMP1 and even Formula E, though initial tests in the Mercedes simulator appeared to suggest an F1 return was unlikely.
However, this year, he took another giant stride back towards the F1 grid with a number of tests, first for Renault, and more recently with Williams, initially in a 2014 car before moving on to contemporary equipment.
At the end of this week's two-day tyre test in Abu Dhabi, which saw the Pole complete 128 laps in total and post the 11th best time of all 25 drivers on duty - and the quickest of all three Williams drivers - he was adamant that if he does get the seat alongside Lance Stroll at Williams, fairy-tales are the last thing on his mind.
"A lot of things have been written and talked about lately," he told reporters. "I think that's normal because there are a lot of question marks and everybody has their own opinion.
"I think there are a lot of people who want to see me back because of the story," he admitted. "The story is nice but in the end there are no discounts for the story, in the end I have to make sure if I get the chance I am ready, and I have to be as best prepared as I can if something comes up.
"I appreciate it," he said of the support he has had from fans and many weithin the sport, "because I think there's a lot of hope and a lot of wishes of a lot of people, but in the end I know how reality is. The reality is that once I'm in the car there is no story anymore, I have to be myself with the car and with the team and the job has to be done.
"First of all I have to be sure that I am able to do it," he continued, "and for sure every day is giving me a lot of confidence that things can work out pretty well. For my standards to be met it pretty much means I have to drive at a high level.
"If I'm coming back I'm not just here to make up the numbers," he insists. "Although I've been away for seven years, with my limitations I have to be sure that I am able to provide my best possibilities and be the best Robert Kubica which I know."
With some claiming the come-back echoes Niki Lauda's return to the F1 grid, just weeks after being given the last rites following his horrific Nurburgring crash, Kubica said: "Everybody has their own life and their own situations. I think from one side it's correct to compare it and from the other side I'm not saying it's bad to compare but it's just a different story.
"Although Niki has a different story to mine, both stories were quite special. F1 is a special world but once you put on the helmet everything disappears and you have to be in a position to deliver."