Kubica on the road to recovery after devastating crash

source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/new-cars/motorsports/kubica-on-the-road-to-recovery-after-devastating-crash/article1922189/
JEFF PAPPONE
Published on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011 9:54AM EST
Last updated on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011 10:01AM EST
 

A big screen dedicated to Formula One driver Robert Kubica is seen during a training session on February 19, 2011 at Catalunya's racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona. Robert Kubica has begun physiotherapy after undergoing a third operation on injuries sustained during a horrific crash over a week ago. JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images

   .Although Formula One received some bad news this week with the cancellation of the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix due to pro-democracy protests, the sport also had reason to smile when injured racer Robert Kubica left intensive care only two weeks after a devastating accident.

Kubica began light finger exercises Tuesday as he took his first steps on a long road back to the cockpit after undergoing a complex surgery to reattach his right hand.

The 26-year-old Lotus-Renault F1 driver was critically injured in an accident during an Italian rally on Feb. 6. when an Armco barrier pierced the floor of his Skoda and almost severed his hand. He underwent three operations and has remained in an Italian hospital since the crash.

“He is doing pretty well and his condition is positive considering what he has been through. The good news is that there have been no complications following all the surgery he has had recently,” said his hand surgeon, Dr. Igor Rossello.

“He no longer needs intensive care, so he has begun the rehabilitation process. He is now in his own large room, so that he is as comfortable as possible.”

Whether Kubica will ever return to an F1 car remains in doubt, but the fact that he is already beginning to flex his fingers is welcome good news for the sport. The Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled for safety reasons by the small Persian Gulf island nation on Monday after seven people were killed and more than 200 injured in ongoing pro-democracy protests.

The Polish driver was a top performer in 2010 and is a rising star in F1, regularly squeezing results from his Renault that were above its capabilities. He delivered three podium finishes and added five more top-5s to end the 2010 season eighth overall in points with 136. He scored all but 27 of his team’s total of 163 points.

Canadian fans will recall Kubica’s maiden F1 win at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2008 while driving for the Sauber BMW team. The victory came a year after Kubica made the Montreal F1 crowd gasp when he had a terrifying accident that saw his car hit a concrete wall at about 300 kilometres per hour and then barrel roll down the track.

While he missed only one race with a concussion after the 2007 accident, his recovery won’t be a simple process this time around. Doctors think it could take as long as a year before Kubica will know whether he will regain full use of his hand.

As his rehabilitation begins, fellow F1 driver Mark Webber, who came back in 2009 after suffering a severely broken leg that required a pin to fix, offered some advice.

“Clearly Robert has much worse injuries than I suffered in 2008, so it’s hard for me to know exactly what he’s feeling. But, with that in mind, a key factor of his recovery is that it is still going to entail a huge amount of patience and mental strength — he will encounter several bad days in a row, followed by some good days in terms of progress,” said the Red Bull driver who finished third overall in points last year.

“He’ll also have to trust the people that he’s working with to know that he is making progress with his rehabilitation, as it’s not always evident to the patient.”

Webber broke his leg after a cycling crash into an SUV during the 2008 Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge. While the compound fracture threatened to end Webber’s career, he amazed many by returning to his car 81 days later for a pre-season test. Later that season, he won his first career grand prix in Germany and then another in Brazil. He won four times in 2010.

That scenario won’t happen for Kubica, who will likely miss the entire 2011 season, even though he said last week that he was targeting a return to the car before the end of the year. The team already hired his former BMW teammate Nick Heidfeld as a replacement for this year. He will partner with Vitaly Petrov who returns for a second season with the team.

Right now, Kubica will focus on his recovery as he tries to get his hand back to a condition where he can drive an F1 car again. He will stay in hospital near Genoa, Italy, for the next few weeks as doctors monitor his condition while his painstaking rehabilitation process gets started.

And that was a topic of conversation for Webber when he visited Kubica last week.

“Something I spoke to Robert about when I saw him was the ‘top two inches’, and by that I meant the psychological battle with himself in the coming months,” the Australian said.

“I’m extremely confident that someone like Robert will have all the right qualities to recover from these complex injuries in the best way possible. Let’s hope we see him behind the wheel again in exactly the same fashion as he drove last year’s car, but with this in mind, the focus should remain on how lucky he has been up to this point, and everything after this will be a huge bonus.”