Becoming a Formula 1 world champion is an incredibly difficult task and being the quickest driver on the grid doesn’t necessarily guarantee you the title.
Fernando Alonso only having two championships to his name is a testament to numerous wrong calls he made when it came to the teams he drove for, while Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and now Max Verstappen have all benefitted from having the best machinery.
Speaking on the Beyond The Grid Podcast, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has shared another driver who should have been a world champion but only ever won a single race.
For the majority of the history of Formula 1, there’s only been one team that gave their drivers any chance of winning a championship.
Seasons such as the 2021 campaign when it came down to the final lap are the exception rather than the rule.
This has meant plenty of very talented drivers have gone through their entire careers without ever mounting a title challenge.
However, Komatsu has suggested that Robert Kubica was good enough to be a Formula 1 champion had he been in the right car.
The 39-year-old Pole was incredibly quick but only ever won a single Grand Prix.
Ayao Komatsu says Robert Kubica should have been a Formula 1 champion
Robert Kubica’s Formula 1 career was very much a case of what could have been.
The Polish driver worked his way up the junior series before winning Formula Renault 3.5 in 2005 alongside his duties as Renault’s reserve driver.
The team went on to win the championship with Fernando Alonso that year and given he and Giancarlo Fisichella were set in their seats, he had to find another way onto the grid.
That came through BMW Sauber and although he only scored six points during his debut season, that was because he only took part in the final seven races and within three races he had already achieved his first podium.
Years of steady improvement alongside Nick Heidfeld saw him reach his peak in F1 in the 2008 season when he won his only race in Canada, 12 months after he suffered a truly horrific crash at the same circuit – with his absence the at the following race handing Sebastian Vettel his debut.
Komatsu worked with Kubica when he finally returned to Renault for a single season in 2010 and in those 12 months saw enough to suggest that he should have been a future Formula 1 world champion.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Haas F1 Team from team principal to Ferrari relationship
Unfortunately, that never worked out for the Pole who saw his F1 career halted before the start of the next season.
Robert Kubica one of F1’s most underrated drivers
Asked if Fernando Alonso is the most impressive driver he’s worked with, Komatsu agreed before offering another name: “Yeah, Fernando [is] definitely the most impressive.
“Also, Robert Kubica! Even though I only worked with him for one year, it was totally clear he was something special.”
Asked what stood out about Kubica, Komatsu added: “Kubica, his ability and his focus, I can’t remember in detail but I remember thinking, ‘This guy’s going to be world champion’.
“I remember in Monaco back then we used to run on Thursday and then Friday was a day off for drivers and then we run on Saturday.
“On Friday normally, drivers only come in for half an hour or an hour to catch up with engineers but I remember Robert, he was in our engineering truck all day.
“I remember saying to Robert, ‘Do you not have anywhere else to go?’ and then he said, ‘No, I’m not interested, I’m just interested in this’.
“The first thing he thought when he woke up was how to go quicker on the following day, that’s all he cared about.”
Kubica’s life-changing accident and misjudged return to F1
Robert Kubica was meant to join Ferrari in 2011 and race alongside Alonso, but a huge accident in the off-season during a rally championship prevented him from racing for years.
He returned to rallying in 2013 but it wasn’t until 2017 when he returned to the F1 paddock.
That was initially as Williams’s test driver, and in 2019 he partnered rookie George Russell in the team for a single season – something he later admitted was a mistake given their struggles at the time.
Kubica could have been a Formula 1 champion had the stars aligned, but that opportunity never presented itself.
Instead, he’s remembered for being incredibly quick and someone even Lewis Hamilton suggested was the ‘best talent’ he had ever seen.
The post ‘Something special’: Team principal says 39-y/o one-time race winner should have been an F1 ‘world champion’ appeared first on F1 Oversteer.