Formula 1 | Alan Permane: “Kubica has the pace to return to F1”

The run of Kubica with a 2012 Lotus last week it was his first "taste" of F1 after the serious accident he had during a rally in February 2011.

The Polish driver completed 115 laps on the track Valencia, and has announced that it now aims to “a real comeback”.

The director of track operations of the Renault Alan Permane he told Polish TV Eleven Sports that Kubica had a good pace in the test but also admitted that the number of laps covered surprised the team.

“I had no doubts about his pace. I didn't know, and we as a team didn't know, what to expect from his physical fitness and how this would affect his riding."

“He has driven a lot in the last few months. She drove on simulators, she drove a car GP3, but we didn't know what its limitations would be and I can honestly say that everything went very well.”

"That was fast. He did some long runs, some short runs, he did a qualifying simulation and even a race simulation, and everything went well” insisted Permane.

When asked about Kubica's possible return, Permane replied: “From what I saw from the statistics, from the data, the pace is still there. The work he did in Valencia was fantastic. There are many other circuits and only he knows which ones he may have limits in."

“If we were to go further, trying other circuits would be the next step.”

The serious injury to his right arm has been the main factor keeping Kubica away from single-seaters in recent years, but Permane stressed that Renault had to make a very small change to the steering to allow him to change gears.

“We simply put the up and downshift buttons on the same side. Nothing major, a small software change for us that had no impact on performance” explained the man Renault.

The Pole's test with the French team was planned "for months" but was officially confirmed by the team only after the test actually took place.

“We honestly didn't want to create a big media storm. We knew everyone would be interested. Everyone loves Robert and everyone was sad about what happened to him in the accident,” Permane explained.

Renault has repeatedly confirmed that the test was one-off, but Permane left the door open for future opportunities.

“We are always in contact and always talking about what we can do in the future. There is nothing planned at the moment but I wouldn't say no to the possibility of doing more tests in the future.”

Stefano Rifici