Will Robert Kubica repeat Monaco’s finish in Singapore?
Renault driver Robert Kubica is cautious not to blow any drums before the Singapore Grand Prix as the Polish driver refrained from giving any claims of a familiar finish to Monaco.
Singapore’s Marina Bay circuit has found a way into the hearts of drivers as well as race fans right from its debut race. This street circuit is usually compared to the Monte Carlo circuit in Monaco in a number of ways but primarily because both offer a
similar high-downforce.
In Monaco earlier this year, the driver was able to perform brilliantly as he stood in the front row after a clean qualifying session and later on the final race day, he made a dazzling finish for third place on podium behind the two Red Bull men.
As Kubica moves ahead for the next round of this season on a lot similar track, it is expected by many that an identical finish would is expected from Kubica once again. However, the driver remains cautious about his chances who modestly refrained from jumping
the gun. One of the reasons for this is that despite the fact that both the venues are similar to each other, yet a lot of changes have been made in the Renault car.
"I think we must be careful not to take anything for granted," he explained. "It's true that Singapore is the closest circuit to Monaco in the calendar, but Monaco was over four months ago. I'd like the car to be as competitive and easy to drive as it was
back then, because it makes it easy for me to push straight away and easier for the engineers to work on extracting the final bit of performance. But things change quickly in Formula One and it may not be the case.” He further exclaimed that he goes to every
next race with the same approach that he is fighting amongst the strongest drivers and the fastest cars of the sport and he will go in with the same fighting spirit for Singapore.
However, he added that the situation has changed completely. For instance, Williams was slow back then but is now moving at faster speeds. Therefore these two races must not be compared to each other. Nevertheless, he is definitely looking forward to give
his best at this weekend in Singapore.
While talking about Singapore, Kubica opined that it is a demanding track and needs a good all-round performance. In order to do just that, a lot of focus is given by the team to the suspension settings of the car to keep its ride smooth over bumpy surfaces.
Moreover, he illustrated that the aerodynamics of the package is important even if the long straights are absent from the Marina Bay circuit. However, the bumpy surfaces and the low-speed corners require a very good mechanical grip.
He clearly stated, "The behaviour of the car needs to be right: you're often using the kerbs in the low speed corners, and limited for mechanical grip, so the car must be easy to drive and give the driver confidence to attack the kerbs, if you want to extract
the maximum from the package.”
Moreover, since this is a temporary circuit, the grip levels build up more quickly than they do on a permanent track, so coming to this high-downforce track just after Italy, which has a low-downforce, one needs to wait and watch how the Renault car would be
performing this weekend.
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