Brendan Lines July 8, 2020 09:30am

Formula 1’s comeback king Robert Kubica will make his on-track debut in anger with Alfa Romeo for this Friday’s FP1 at the Styrian Grand Prix in Austria.

The 35-year old Polish driver will get back into an F1 cockpit on a Grand Prix weekend for the first time since driving for Williams in 2019.

“I am looking forward to returning to action this weekend, especially after the long break the whole world of motorsport had to observe. My objective, as always, is to provide as much data as possible for our engineers and to give them my feedback from within the cockpit,” he said.

“This weekend will be quite a new experience for everyone, racing in the same venue we were on just a few days ago, so it will be a matter of refining all the data we collected over the course of the Austrian Grand Prix and testing the adjustments we want to make to the cars.”

Kubica getting familiar again with the C39 – Image: Alfa Romeo Racing

Kubica scored Williams its only world championship point last season at the German Grand Prix.

However, it wont be the first time the Pol will drive Alfa’s C39, as he completed laps for the team’s pre season testing at Barcelona earlier this year before the lockdown period.

Kubica’s F1 career came to a grinding halt in 2011 after a horrific rallying accident in Italy which almost completely severed his right hand, just as a move to Ferrari was on the cards.

Although his return with Williams as a test driver in 2018 and full-time grand prix driver in 2019 was heralded as one of the sports greatest triumphs over adversity in modern times.

This occasion is a true homecoming for Kubica, as he now will go a full-circle driving for Alfa previously in it’s former guise as BMW-Sauber.

It was with Sauber Kubica took his his debut and only F1 victory to date at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2008.

Kubica will replace Alfa driver Antonio Giovinazzi for FP1 and will add much needed development to the car says Alfa Team principal Frédéric Vasseur.

“I am looking forward to seeing Robert in the car on Friday. A driver with his experience always comes up with valuable feedback and he’ll be able to help us continue learning about our car,” Vassuer said.

“Robert was with the team last weekend, of course, and so he is fully aware of everything that was discussed in the engineering meetings and during each session: it’ll be a chance for him to experience the car by himself and, armed with that knowledge, help us progress further.”

Kubica’s valuable feedback comes as the team will want to improve on its mixed bag of results from last week’s Austrian Grand Prix with a 9th place for Giovinazzi and a DNF for Kimi Raikkonen.

Feature image above: Robert Kubica – Image: Alfa Romeo Racing