Renault: Kubica test wasn’t PR but doubts remain

Cyril Abiteboul says a possible return to F1 racing for Robert Kubica has to “make sense” for all concerned, insisting that his recent test was not a public relations stunt.

Renault ran Kubica in the post-Hungarian Grand Prix test believing that the layout of the circuit would answer a lot of questions about his ability.

However, as it was just one test, Renault acknowledge that there are still some uncertainties as to the Polish driver’s capabilities.

Kubica suffered career-ending injuries to his right forearm when he crashed during a rally event in 2011. And although he has raced in other series, it remains to be seen whether he will ever return to Formula 1.

“Frankly, we said we wanted to be extremely methodological and analytic about the way that we were approaching things with Robert,” said Renault’s managing director Abiteboul.

“It’s not a PR exercise. It’s something we’re taking very seriously and we’re trying to leave emotion on the side. We don’t have all the answers that we potentially wanted to get from that test.

“In addition to that, Formula 1 is very restrictive in terms of the tests we can do. So in a perfect world, we want to do more of these type of tests to see if he can race again. It may or may not be possible. We will see.”

He added: “The question with Robert as I said is that we have a restriction on our ability to test. Any addition to that testing in the regulations, private testing, one car, in controlled environment without rain, without first-lap action that you can always encounter, all of that needs to be factored into the decision of pursuing or not pursuing.

“I don’t want to create speculation, and I don’t always want to put it that the team has some obligation to go further because there is an interest, a willingness from the public to see Robert back. We would all like Robert to be back, but it has to make sense.”