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Formula 1 Hungaroring August testing
Kubica "not 100 percent happy" with Hungary test showing
Robert Kubica has admitted he was not 100 percent happy with his return to official Formula 1 testing in Hungary with Renault.
Lawrence Barretto
Edited: Aug 2, 2017, 6:54 PM
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Kubica, who was driving a contemporary F1 car for the first time since 2011 when a rallying crash interrupted his career, clocked 142 laps and the fourth-quickest time at the Hungaroring.
Renault admitted “driver evaluation” was part of its programme during day two of the test, which will be crucial in weighing up whether Kubica can make a return to F1 next season.
“Yes, [I’m happy] but not 100 percent happy,” Kubica told reporters. “The biggest difference is this car has nothing similar or same as the cars I have been testing lately.
“When you have so many things that are different, it normally takes a bit of time to adapt.
“Coming here, actually Nico Hulkenberg said the same, that once I will be able to drive here, probably I’ll be able to drive everywhere.
"You can predict it wasn’t easy, which I’m not hiding, but it was good. I could drive, I think, tomorrow easily so fitness level is good, which is a good sign.
“There are sides which need to be improved or need to get better but it’s always like this.”
Kubica said he didn’t feel any pain, but rather tiredness, especially given the hot and humid conditions.
“From a physical point of view, inside the car it is much better than it looks outside the car,” he said. “That’s what’s most important. I didn’t have any pain, I actually feel quite well.
"Of course, I’m tired. It has been a hot day in the end the eight hours of running, I jumped out only once for 10 minutes."
Kubica said one of the biggest differences he noticed in driving the 2017 machine was that the “cars are even heavier”.
He added: “When I last time drove the car, the minimum weight was 620kg, to have 100kg [extra] bringing around the track, it makes a big difference.
“In a rally car when you put a 20kg spare wheel in a car which is weighing 1,300kg, you feel it so imagine in a 600kg car adding 100kg."
When asked if he felt he had enough dexterity to deal with all the buttons, Kubica said: “Yeah, it’s not problem at all.”
He added: “For the adaptation of the steering wheel, there was not one part that was done especially for me.
“There are some adaptations on the gearshift leaver, but it’s something that’s been used in the past, it’s still been used lately with some other teams which I know, and I used it in the simulators. There is nothing that’s been done strictly for myself.
“The steering wheel was adapted the past two days but it was just to reshuffle the button positions to allow me to operate the highest priorities easier and the lower-priority buttons, which you never use, in the positions that are more difficult to reach."
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