Kubica In Hospital After Rally Crash!

[duest 0]

Some more pictures from the scene, including Robert under medical care:

[AleHop 0]

[duest 0]

The c*ckpit looks really smashed up from that video. Sh*t.

Yeah. There is a positive though. It doesn't look to me like the car's damage would be conducive to the sort of crushing injury that would result in the amputation of a hand. I'm very confident that news report was crap.

[AleHop 0]

13:55 Dr. Carrozzino Hospital Santa Corona announced that Kubica has been tested to assess possible damage to internal organs and brain. Asked about the possibility of amputation of hands, Carrozzino replied that no decision has yet been taken. "The decision of amputation can not be taken lightly. I do not deny nor confirm. "

[Max Mosley 2]

Very sad to read all this, only a few years after his massive crash in F1. Hope things aren't as bad as speculated.

[Schumikonen 2]

Let's hope for the best, the guy is one of the best drivers today, F1 will definitelly won't be better without him, IMO if there is no official news yet it means that it is a really serious matter, in any case like JHS said here racing can wait, I hope he is in one piece and that he could return to race once he is fully recovered.

[JHS 1]

Yeah. There is a positive though. It doesn't look to me like the car's damage would be conducive to the sort of crushing injury that would result in the amputation of a hand. I'm very confident that news report was crap.

My main worry from seeing that video is his feet or legs. There's an awful lot of protrusion inside the car.

[JHS 1]

From Jon Noble's twitter feed: "Robert Kubica has multiple fractures to right arm, leg and hand - Renault team confirms."

[duest 0]

Hopefully the delay is because they're just being thorough and don't want to jump the gun. Testing for internal injuries and brain injury would be standard. Determining how badly broken his hand is and what to do about it would be low priority.

Anyway, I'm starting to speculate. No more from me until we hear something official.

[LabradoRacer 2]

Racing Gods, I beseech you to take care of Robert Kubica. He's one of your most ardent devotees; he doesn't deserve what's happened to him. If you don't work a miracle on him, you'll blaspheme yourselves.

[Kopite Girl 0]

I'm not a doctor nor do I profess to be an expert on such matters, but an amputated limb can be from a number of factors but the highest is usually if the injury is restricting blood flow to major organs, or has a high chance of turning gangrene, is partially severed and cannot be reattached. My mates uncle had his arm crushed by a tractor. It was rendered useless but he was told to have it amputated would have caused more complications. My Dad was a leg amputee after shrapnel and bullets (Falklands War) could not be removed.

Speaking from experience, that is the least of his worries. If the reports of brain damage and internal injury are true, then I'd rather concentrate on surviving.

These days, medical science is absolutely brilliant. I have faith he'll be ok. Robert survived that awful smash he had a couple of years back. Was it Canada 08?

[Kopite Girl 0]

....where his legs and ankles were protruding from where the accelerator, etc should have been.

[LabradoRacer 2]

Speaking from experience, that is the least of his worries. If the reports of brain damage and internal injury are true, then I'd rather concentrate on surviving.

I don't mean to take this part out of context, but he should be highly worried about his hand. Life would lose all meaning for him were he to lose his hand. I'd rather have his life be snuffed out than have him carry on life with crushed dreams.

[Kopite Girl 0]

I don't mean to take this part out of context, but he should be highly worried about his hand. Life would lose all meaning for him were he to lose his hand. I'd rather have his life be snuffed out than have him carry on life with crushed dreams.

Bull. Alex Zanardi still races. There is plenty of sportsmen and women all over the world who have carried on in the sport they love. Their lives dont end just because a limb is lost, Jay. Life ends when you're laying dead.

Always live it to the full. Life is a gift. Use it. And I think Robert Kubica wont give up that easily either.

Sorry, but I cannot comprehend your way of thinking Jay. I don't understand it. I never will. I don't want to either, if I did, I'd have been dead long ago.

And I'm not having a go at you.

[JHS 1]

These days, medical science is absolutely brilliant. I have faith he'll be ok. Robert survived that awful smash he had a couple of years back. Was it Canada 08?

Canada '07. '08 was the race he won.

[Delta 0]

I hope he clears up, and can race again, to lose such a talent before it has the chance to be fulfilled would be a sad loss to Formula 1

[Kopite Girl 0]

Canada '07. '08 was the race he won.

That's it, yeah! Thanks mate! This old girl's brain is still chimpified! I feel sorry for the chimp mind.

[JHS 1]

F1Lite: Kubica is in no immediate danger. Internal bleeding has been virtually stopped. Operation on the hand will continue until 7pm GMT. #F1

Amputation is not expected to take place. The hospital will officially comment after 7pm GMT, when the operation is finished. #F1

[KoolMonkey 0]

I think some are missing the point in terms of car damage. Looking at it from the outside, it looks like most rally cars that have had a smash up. However it's the protrusions into the car that are the key.

On James' Allen site, there was talk of an armco going into the car. I have no idea what that is, but if you see the footage, you'll see those solid metal barriers on the side of the road. This I think is the key. Something has pierced the car during the crash and mangled him. Brain damage, hand amputation? I think it's fair to say Kuby wont' be racing in any form this year.

As a side note, I noticed alot of talk on Allen's site about folks wanting Kimi to take Kubica's place until he gets better. I know Kimi is good friends with Vettel, but not sure on Kubica. He seems like he's the type of guy who would step in to help a mate. But at any rate, the russian and the senna are simply not going to cut it for Renault. It doesn't matter that Senna is the #3 driver. If you're followed F1 in recent years, you'll know that alot of teams completely ignore their reserve drivers and pick someone more suitable. Yes I know Ferrari dabbled with Luca but they also brought in Fisi from left frield. At any rate I'd expect to enter Heidfeld, Fisi, PDR, JV perhaps, maybe the Hulk or Luizzi but I doubt it. I think it's going to have to be a driver with alot of experience as their role would then be one of teaching Petrov. So think of an elder statesman driver like DC and that might be who they pickup for a one year stint. So that would then rule out most of the rookies and clingers on for that role.

[KoolMonkey 0]

Best info I've found yet.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns22912.html

It confirms some of my thoughts about the c#ckpit of his being being pierced or penetrated by something. If you look at the youtube footage, you'll see parts of the guardrail missing. My hunch is that is part of what entered the car.

Robert Kubica has been airlifted to hospital serious injuries to his arm, leg and hand after a crash en route to a Ronde di Andora rally stage in Italy.

Kubica, driving a Skoda Fabia WRC, left the road at high speed just 4.6 km into the first stage and hit a guardrail in front of a church wall. The c#ckpit area was heavily damaged as the Skoda flew over the guardrails, with reports that the end of the guardrail cut into Kubica's arm and leg - while the co-driver area was untouched. While his co-driver and friend Jacub Gerber suffered no injuries in the crash and left the car by his own means, Kubica was trapped in the car and had to be rescued by the local emergency services. According to eye-witnesses, Kubica arrived too fast at a very quick Esse in the middle of the first stage of the rally and crashed heavily into the left hand side of the road.

There are reports that Kubica lost blood, as it took 90 minutes to release him from the car, and he was then transported by helicopter to the hospital of Santa Corona di Pietra Ligure where he was stabilized and sedated. Doctors have diagnosed him with multiple fractures to his right arm, leg and hand, and he is currently undergoing surgery.

It appears that the worst injuries are to his hand, which was reported to have been injured and cut when the end of the guardrail penetrated the c#ckpit of the car.

Although Kubica never suffered any serious injury while driving in circuit racing, early in 2003, just after he had signed to race in F3, he crashed a rally car while practicing in Poland and that put him out of action for a few months. He had titanium plates put in his left arm, to hold the bone together, but today's accident affects the same area of his body, so the consequences could be severe.

Kubica has regularly contested rallies alongside his F1 career but today's accident, sadly, will put the wisdom of such actions under serious scrutiny. Kubica, who won the 2008 Canadian GP for BMW a year after suffering a colossal accident in the same race a year earlier, is highly rated by his rivals as well as by his team. Technical chief James Allison said last year, "I have no doubt that if we give Robert a championship-winning car, he will deliver a title."

Although it is early days in pre-season testing, the initial performance of the new Group Lotus-sponsored Renault R31 seems highly promising. While the prime concern must be for Kubica and a full recovery that allows him to continue his career, it seems inevitable that he will not be taking part in the opening races of the new F1 season, which starts in Bahrain five weeks today.

The team finds itself in a situation whereby its second driver, Vitaly Petrov, has just one season of F1 experience behind him and, also, the biggest 2010 gulf between himself and his team mate on the F1 grid.

Bruno Senna has just signed a deal to be Renault's reserve driver. The 27-year-old also has only a single season in the top category under his belt, with the newly-formed HRT team. If Kubica's injuries rule him out as expected, it remains to be seen whether Renault will consider Petrov/Senna a workable partnership or whether the team will look elsewhere.

Drivers with ability/experience who have not got full-time F1 seats in 2011 include Germans Nick Heidfeld and former GP champion Nico Hulkenberg, who is reserve driver at Force India.

[LabradoRacer 2]

JHS, that's good to hear.

[JHS 1]

To be honest, who really gives a flying f*ck about who'll replace him? I just hope that he's okay.

[AleHop 0]

....where his legs and ankles were protruding from where the accelerator, etc should have been.

It was scaring.

Some stuff in this thread belongs to That's finally it... blah blah blah SH!T.

[BradSpeedMan 6]

To be honest, who really gives a flying f*ck about who'll replace him? I just hope that he's okay.

a logical, acceptable question. Both him and Renault knew the risk.

Wishing him a speedy recovery

[Bambino 0]

To be honest, who really gives a flying f*ck about who'll replace him? I just hope that he's okay.

I'm glad that you care about Robert because obviously no one else does. You must be a very special boy, well done. We shouldn't be thinking about who will replace him because that makes us all horrible boys and girls. I know that when the question pops up again (just like another poo in my nappy), you won't have an opinion because you'll be worrying about Bobby big nose on our behalf, so thanks little JHS man.