My biggest question here is this: Why on earth would team Renault be happy to allow one of their drivers to indulge in his passion for (tame) rally driving, when there’s only a month till the first race of the season in Bahrain? I’d imagine one or more of the team’s coordinators is going to be funemployed very shortly.

To set the scene for you: Kubica was competing on the Ronda de Andora Rally in Italy yesterday. High-octane, pulsating speeds around sharp bends and flimsy tracks – that’s rally driving. Not the brightest way to whoop it up ahead of a big season.

So Kubica lost control of his motor and ended up slamming into a wall, well a church wall to be precise (yes, apparently the church was more than happy to let the race commence outside its front porch). The driver appears certain to miss the entire season after he sustained a “mangled hand, arm and leg”. Surgeons feared that his entire career was in jeopardy, seeing as they initially believed his arm would have to be amputated. Yes, severed from use (although last I checked driving with one hand was possible). The poor surgeons worked for over seven hours to rescue his arm, apparently muttering the usual Scary Movie “take my strong hand” jokes to one another – in Italian of course.

Professor Mario Igor Rossello said he hoped the Pole would have full use of his arm “within a year”.

“It was a very complicated procedure and there was the risk he would lose his hand,” said Rossello, adding that the team had worked on “setting the bones and reattaching veins, tendons and muscles”.

“We need a few more days to understand the full extent of the injury, but he should recuperate fairly quickly and have full use of his hand within a year. At the end of the operation, Robert’s hand was well vascularised and warm, which is encouraging.

“He will remain under permanent monitoring overnight because his condition remains serious.”

Kubica had been trapped in the totalled vehicle for over an hour, had lost consciousness and a significant amount of blood and his serious condition warranted calling a chopper to airlift him out of there.

So now that he is set to miss out on a hefty portion of the season, who will take his place? Personally, Mika Hakkinen was always my favourite, but he, unlike Ralf Schumacher’s brother, is smart enough to know he is past it.

[Sources: The Telegraph; The Sun]

Main image via racingaccidents.wordpress.com (triggered queasy feeling).