How good are the shocks on your car?

Photos: Racing Management

Loud exhaust? Ok, I hear you.

Big Brake Kit?  On so many cars it just announces to the world you brake too much.

Truth is, you cannot be a serious tracktard until you've had  explain to someone how you dropped 6 to 10 grand on a set of shock absorbers.

What?  Wait , a set of Bilsteins for my Miata cost $120 a piece, you say?  Well, there is so much about shocks you need to learn then.

Shocks  (or  dampers if you are British) are the vital component keeping wheels in contact with the the ground and,  a car can only steer and move forward is there is a contact patch.

With shock absorber, maybe more than any other performance part, you get what you pay for: adjustability, range of adjustment, build, travel and ability to be serviced.  For a club racing track car, a good set of shocks might  be in the $4K to $6K range but for a WRC car?  You can do the math.

Why you'd need the best available shock  technology is well illustrated in this video of Robert Kubica testing his LOTOS Ford Fiests RS WRC ahead of the Montecarlo rally.  

That particular  stretch of road was clearly chosen to work on shock settings and you can see why as Kubica rips at ridiculous speed over bumps and troughs that would sent an ordinary car flying into the woods.
 
The Fiesta bottoms out and bounces off the ground but Kubica is able not to lift, in part because of his huge balls, in part because he knows he can count on his wheel having maximum contact with the tarmac.



(H/T Wojtek!)

Donuts were made: Valentino Rossi, faster than Ken Block but not as fast as Robert Kubica.

The yearly Monza Rally Show is a lot of fun: a combination rallycross and WRC special stage, it's run by repurposing various parts of the historic Monza track, including the banking.

Most of the competitors are from Italy but as it's a Monster Energy sponsored event, some big international names dropped in. Valentino Rossi, who would probably show up Monster or no Monster,  was joined by fellow energized drivers, Ken Block, NASCAR's Kurt Bush and Lewis Hamilton.  Hamilton just did a demo in a Mercedes A 45 AMG,  as a demo it was pretty lame but the crowd did not seem to mind and gave him a warm welcome.  Lewis was not the only F1 driver in attendance, Robert Kubica was also in with his current ride, a WRC Ford Fiesta.



Now the Rally Show is supposed to be more fun than competition but racers will be racers.   Both Block and Rossi made almost identical, spectacular passes for the pleasure of the huge crowd in attendance.

Valentino



and KB



Many donuts were made...

It was the first time in a rally(-ish) competition for Bush so it's not surprising he came in last in class, 35th overall.   Block  came in second to last in class, 29th overall, 7 minutes and 25 seconds behind the winner.  I imagine he probably crashed or something.

Rossi finished second in class and overall,  7 minutes and 10 seconds faster than Block and he races motorcycles for a living!

But the Doctor was no match for Robert Kubica, who for once did NOT crash and pretty much obliterated the competition, finishing the final stage over 12 seconds ahead of Rossi.

It's worth remembering Kubica has lost most of the use of his right hand.

Check out the video, Rossi is quick but you can see how much more momentum Kubica carries through the switchbacks.

Well done Robert!



In attendance also historic rally cars,  clip included your viewing pleasure

Kubica had a very special coach for Rally Sweden

Ex F1 driver Robert Kubica had a very special coach giving him tip on the proper way to use studs and snow banks this week in Sweden.
WRC legend Marcus Grönholm sat in the passenger seat of Kubica's Ford Fiesta WRC as they rocketed on tree lined toboggan runs of the sub arctic forests.
Reports are Grönholm was properly impressed with Bobby K's speed.

Kubica Monte Carlo hopes end up in a ditch as Ogier comes back to the lead.

Robert Kubica Monte Carlo podium dreams ended in a ditch she he lost a battle against the evil Axis of Understeer on Friday's Stage 9.

Meanwhile current World Champion Sebastien Ogier took the lead of the rally after Bryan Bouffier slid off into a field.

Today was much better than yesterday,” said Ogier “Tomorrow will be difficult with some snow expected on the Col de Turini. But for now I can be happy.”

1.  Sebastien Ogier      VW                3h14m51.3s
 2.  Bryan Bouffier       M-Sport Ford          +51.1s
 3.  Kris Meeke           Citroen             +1m38.6s
 4.  Mads Ostberg         Citroen             +2m48.9s
 5.  Jari-Matti Latvala   VW                  +6m04.4s
 6.  Elfyn Evans          M-Sport Ford        +6m14.5s
 7.  Mikko Hirvonen       M-Sport Ford        +6m43.7s
 8.  Andreas Mikkelsen    VW                 +10m16.9s
 9.  Jaroslav Melicharek  Slovakia Ford      +16m00.8s
10.  Matteo Gamba         Balbosca Peugeot   +20m01.4s

Robert Kubica drove his Ford like a man possessed.

Photo via Racingist.com

Robert Kubica's first rally as a Ford driver had not gone entirely to plan as he lined up for the start of the final stage at the European Rally Championship's Jännerrallye-Oberösterreich ,   a tarmac event in Austria.

The polish ace was over 11 seconds behind the leader and road conditions were awful, a mixture of black ice and mud making the final stage treacherous.   Kubica, running up against his tire allotment, had to use two studded tires and two of the more preferable snows, mixed diagonally.

After just a few of the 25 km of the stage he slips off an nails one of the snow markers...

The impact knocked loose one of his auxiliary lights which, still attached to its harness, shines back into the cabin...

...which is not ideal when you are driving in the woods...

and the road starts to get shrouded in fog...

Better to shut them off and drive blind then...  except Kubica misses a note while looking for the switch and nearly collects a couple of poles and a house.

Despite all that, Kubica won the stage by 34 seconds over his main rival taking the overall win by almost 20 seconds,  a miracle.     But then Kubica knows miracles well.    

Gratulacje Robert!

Meanwhile, on a rally stage in Poland...

Robert Kubica almost takes out a herd of cows.    Robert,  c'mon man...

Robert Kubica On A Roll

Foggy day at the European Rally Championship Azores saw Robert Kubica again finding the limits of his Citroen. Kubica was able to continue despite a broken front suspension but lost over four minutes to the leader and winnner of the rally Jan Kopecky on a Skoda.

Please Robert, Stop Rallying.

Kubica's crashed Citroen. Angél Calcines/Flickr  

I just don't know what else to say after watching this clip of Robert Kubica crashing into a guard rail and miraculously not falling off a 30 foot drop yesterday at the ERC Rally Canarias. Kubica was leading the rally at the time.



In case you are not familiar with Kubica's story, suffice it to say that a  crash against a guard rail in casual rally appearance early 2011 ended his promising Formula 1 career and partially severed his right arm almost killing him.

Robert Kubica driving a Mercedes DTM car

The test on a wet track in Valencia went "without any problems" and, if you believe rumors reported here and there, Kubica was a half second faster than Mercedes' Gary Paffet but there are no official times.   The important point is that Robert was able to come up to speed quickly.  

What is clear in this video that was not so clearly seen in previous ones is the extent of his injury to his right arm.  You can see how Kubica is always hiding it and it looks like he has very limited motion at the elbow.

A hero.

Meanwhile, near Cremona...

Photos:  Autosprint

300 km on track driving a Team Oregon Renault Megane Trophy as a warm up for his upcoming Mercedes DTM test in Valencia this week, Robert Kubica takes another step in his rehabilitation just about two years after his horrific accident in a rally car in February 2011.    

Despite much media speculation and wishful thinking, Kubica has always lowered expectations about a full return to action, essentially  ruling out the possibility of ever having the mobility required to drive a single seater again.     Sedans though,  even the most extreme ones like DTM, are another story and even though once again Robert plays down speculations,  there is still room on the Mercedes 2013 DTM roster should the test prove successful.
It would be a feather in Merc's hat and frankly a relief to all of Robert's fans who cringe a little every time they see him dodging trees and cliffs in a rally car.

Kubica crashes out of rally

Don't really know what to say about this,  a challenge or is it a warning?   

For sure I don't see why it's rallys for Kubica,  why not tin tops, something without trees and loose guard rails at least.

Neither he nor his navigator were hurt when the went off during the third special stage of a rather meaningless  Italian championship rally,  a rally that, among other things, featured one competitor getting the wiring loom in his car mysteriously cut in the night and another encountering a nail strip and puncturing both his front tires...

I'd go with "warning"

Photo: OmniCorse.it

On Board with Robert Kubica

Photo: Alessio Buttazzoni/Flickr

Pistonheads published this video today, you're sitting in the right seat of Robert Kubica's Team First Subaru WRC as he's charging up  the Italian Alps this past week end.  

Jalopnik today has a story about great motorsport comebacks, I think they missed this one.   Robert is driving like nothing ever happened.

At the same time I keep reading everywhere how Kubica is "coming back to F1 in 2014".  What Kubica actually said in Antonio Boselli's interview was:   "...certainly not before 2014". 

He also acknowledged an F1 return will be extremely difficult and that he feels lucky to just be where he is today.

I don't think Kubica will ever give up yet I'm not sure anyone is doing him any favors piling on pressure and measuring success strictly on his return to F1.

Kubica sideways!

He won!

Sure, it was a local amateur rally but when was the last time you spent 20 months in hospitals after a near death experience and came out of it with such need for tire shredding?

Go Robert!

Robert Kubica interviewed: "I will finally see corners, drifts and gasoline"

That's Robert Kubica during shakedown for this week end's Rally Gomitolo di Lana in Biella, Italy.

There were rumors of Robert's return to a competitive rally for next week end and his entry was kept off the official entry roster for this even until the very last minute.

Photo: Antonio Boselli

Sky Sport24 journalist Antonio Boselli recorded this exclusive and emotional interview. with the Polish driver.

I realize most Axis readers are not fluent in Italian so allow me to paraphrase its major points.

Robert is extremely emotional about his return to competition and says one of the main reasons for it is that, after being a driver for twenty years there are sensations, feelings and muscle memories he alone can understand and come to terms with and only from behind the wheel in a competitive situation.

He said that after spending the 20 months in hospitals, operating rooms and fisio centers, he very much looks forward to some turns, drifts and gas fumes.

Poignantly he also admits he is not and will probably never be the same man he was before his accident and that, while he will never rule out a return to Formula 1,  it is still a distant goal.  Certainly not before 2014.

He's very grateful for the support from fans but said he has been quiet about his condition because his nature is not to say anything he is not certain of and that "so much BS" has been said about him in the twenty months.

Go Robert!

Robert Kubica back in a rally car once again!

Talk about getting back on the horse that threw you I mean, what could possibly go wrong, right?


The comeback continues with our sources telling Axis that Robert has also been logging a lot of GP2 simulator time and handily beating current drivers times. An F1 test in 2012 is still in the cards though it is possible Kubica might return to WRC rather than single seaters. Well, a little rally car seems to have done Kimi a lot of good.

Go Robert!

Robert Kubica walking on his own

Robert Kubica was photographed walking outside the Formula Medicine clinic in Viareggio Italy. Formula Medicine is a medical training clinic run by Dr. Riccardo Chiccarelli who had helped Robert after a previous car accident:

" ...Kubica is not from a wealthy background but he is very talented, we first helped him when racing in the minor categories. He had been involved in a serious road accident, in a car driven by a friend in Poland. It had left him with his arm in plaster with a prognosis of six months and the risk of losing the use of his right hand. His career was at risk of being compromised.
We brought him to Italy to be operated in Lucca. He returned racing only forty days after the operation with a steel plate and eighteen screws in his arm. He made his debut in F3 and in 2007 started racing in F1 with BMW-Sauber."

Kubica is no stranger to pain or recovery. Get well soon Robert!
(Photo: TEAM)



.

Formula 1 Guitar

Handsome Dick Manitoba may have rocked Young Fast Scientific but this guy is...REALLY scientific. Any thought's this man's obsession is mere playing around stop when you see the light turn off as Kubica is see entering the tunnel in Monaco!

Or when you read his technical explanations:

"... Monaco is a one-of-a-kind circuit in so many ways. With the guitar I noted it was the hardest circuit to play in the championship so far, with very quick gear changing (a feeling reinforced by playing a different driver than the smooth Fernando Alonso) and very quick accelerations. Note also the use of first gear in the slowest corners of the championship, a not very usual fact this season with the unloaded fuel tanks during Q3.
I am sorry for my careless low start of 7th gear in the guitar playing, when this straight-less circuit demands a very short 7th gear."

He too is worried about the technical regulations coming in 2013

"...When I started thinking about how to make my guitar videos, I first calculated the theoretical pitch of current Formula 1 V8 engines. This way, we have the revolutions limit in 18000 rpm, which is 300 revolutions per second, that is 300 Hz. Given that a four-stroke engine cylinder has one explosion for every two revolutions, we have 150 explosions per second per cylinder. Therefore, the eight cylinders of a V8 engine make for a total of 1200 explosions per second, that is a sound of 1200 Hz, which is a musical note slightly above D6. However, the actual sound we hear on TV onboard laps has a predominant frequency of 600 Hz when the engine is on top revolutions, which is a subdivision of the 1200 Hz theoretical sound. That is the main frequency I play on my guitar videos, using appropriately tuned third and fourth strings past 22nd fret to have a 600 Hz sound (D5).

With the new engines, to be used from 2013 on, the revolutions limit is set to 12000 rpm, which means a reduction of the engine sound pitch by 12000/18000 = 2/3. Moreover, the engines will have 4 cylinders instead of 8, which will reduce by 1/2 the pitch of the engine sound. Altogether, we will have 2/3 x 1/2 = 1/3, so the 600 Hz sound on top revolutions will be divided by 3 to turn into a 200 Hz sound. That corresponds to a musical note slightly above G3, around the 3rd fret of a guitar for third or fourth strings, so I will have to buy a bass guitar if I want to play slow corners of a Formula 1 lap in the future, or even a contrabass for the Monaco famous turn 6."

Check out more at Formula1guitar.blogspot.com in English and Español!
(Thanks @Circuitoftheamericas)
end of post

First interview with Robert Kubica!

Pino Allievi, the main motorsport man at Gazzetta dello Sport, interviewed Kubica today. I'll summarize and translate:

"...Kubica is already back to his own self, his own sense of irony, he says he's not homologated yet. He moves the injured hand " Fingers are working, I can feel them. Same with the arm. But they have to operate more, only after I will know..."

Robert is extremely lucid, his face relaxed, he's not feverish. His life is no longer in danger. "I'm sorry about what happened...It should not but I don't remember anything. My manager, Daniele Morelli explained it all to me"

"My parents came from Poland but they already left, I'm really sorry for my mom, to have made her suffer... I don't have much pain...they sedate me. After the final operation, the countdown to my return begins....One gets better after these crashes, It happened after my crash in Canada in 2007. There are new capacities and motivations that come out, I will be back stronger as a driver, with a better head game. I have to return this season and my right arm feels better than when I was hit by a drunk driver seven year ago..."

"I've asked myself why run rallies: it's training, very hard, very severe for Formula 1. It helps develop concentration....Will I do more? We'll see."

"It was nice to see Briatore, an exceptional person. Then came Alonso, Lopez, Petrov, Alesi, Liuzzi, it was nice. Racing does not allow you to see the real human side of people, too many conflicts.."

Robert would like to talk more but he gets tired quickly but for him, it's the start of a new life, a "better one" he assures us."

Pino Allievi, Gazzetta dello Sport.

end of post

Rally Andora Onboard:first on the scene of Kubica's crash

Thanks to our reader Gabriele for finding this on board from Mauro Moreno's car in Sunday's Rally Andora.
Moreno and navigator Corrado Bonato were starting immediately behind Robert Kubica's Skoda, were first on the scene and got out of the car to try to rescue their fellow driver.

At about 2:30, as they are climbing into the fog, Moreno remarks to his codriver how it's getting slippery. Soon after they come upon Kubica's wreck and immediately realize he was seriously hurt.

Kubica's condition as he arrived to the hospital were perhaps even worse than first thought. For one, as one might imagine as he was trapped for a scandalously long time with an forearm almost fully amputated, he lost a great quantity of blood, this was the first concern of medics as he arrived in the ER.

He remains sedated but he's been brought back to consciousness for checks. The hand is apparently satisfactorily warm but it will be over a year before the extent of nerve recuperation can be determined.

Robert also broke his elbow, shoulder, tibia and had a knee tendon severed. All of these have yet to be treated for fear of complication.
(info Gazzetta dello Sport)

here is Lotus Renault's press release today


07.02.11 UPDATE ON ROBERT KUBICA

Robert’s general condition is much better today.

After spending the night under constant observation, he was briefly woken up by the doctors of the Santa Corona Hospital (Pietra Ligure) this morning. The Lotus Renault GP driver was then able to talk to his relatives. He was also able to move his fingers, which is encouraging for the rest of his recovery process.

Professor Mario Igor Rossello, Director for the Regional Centre of Hand Surgery at San Paolo Hospital in Savona, did not notice any swelling or infection on his right forearm, and this is another good sign, although it will be several days before it is known if the operation has been 100% successful.

In order to avoid any physical stress, Robert will be put under gentle medication in order to sleep for the next 24 hours at least. Meanwhile, the doctors will decide how they will treat his elbow and shoulder fractures. Robert may have to undergo surgery once again for this, but not for a few days.

Lotus Renault GP wishes to thank the Hospital of San Paolo (Savona) and the Santa Corona Hospital (Pietra Ligure) for their professional approach and their dedication.

Lotus Renault GP will issue another update on Robert’s condition later this evening.
end of post

Kubica seriously injured in Rally Accident, may lose a hand.

Reports say he suffered multiple fractures he might lose the use of one hand. Terrible news for
Robert Kubica who was contesting the Rally Andora in Italy when he lost control of his Skoda Fabia, slammed against a wall and was trapped in the car. The guard rail penetrated the car and it took a long time, a shocking 90 minutes, to extricate Robert who was then airlifted to a hospital where he is being kept in an induced coma.

An official statement from Lotus Renault GP was non committal, but I would guess Bruno Senna will step in.

Get well soon Robert!

UPDATE: Kubica is as of 8AM ET in surgery with a team of orthopedic specialists. There are more serious concern because of internal bleeding.
Kubica was first attended at the scene by the crew of the next car behind, Mauro Moreno and Corrado Bonato. Bonato has said that the scene looked bad with Kubica crushed in the car and with "the guard rail passing through his foot".

UPDATE: This news report showing the accident aftermath claims Robert had an arm amputated, I have no other confirmations of this! proceed with caution. Kubica is said in the report to have suffered head injuries and a broken femur as well.

Video from the scene would suggest Robert must have hit the end of a guard rail with the metal penetrating the car as earlier reports suggested.

Final Update: Doctors were able to save Robert's limbs but question remain as to the functionality of his right hand. It's fairly safe to say he will be out for at least most of the season.