Boullier and Kubica at the end of the 2010 season
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Former Renault Formula 1 boss Eric Boullier has described the horrifying moment when his driver Robert Kubica was critically injured in a rally crash in 2011, describing it as one of the most frightening experiences of his career.
Kubica, a rising star in Formula 1 and the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner, was then considered one of the fastest and most talented drivers on the grid.
The Pole, who at the time was driving for Lotus Renault, suffered multiple fractures to his right shoulder, elbow, hand and leg during the Ronde di Andora rally in Italy, just days after impressing in pre-season testing with the new R31 car.
“I had no idea that Robert was doing that damn rally,” Boullier told Matt Bishop for the latest issue of Motor Sport.
“His manager, Daniele Morelli, called me on the Sunday morning: ‘Big drama, Eric.’ Well, it was. It really was. Robert was in a coma, and at one point we thought he might die.”
Boullier said the shock of learning that one of his star drivers could have lost his life was deeply unsettling.
Kubica’s accident came at a critical moment for the Renault F1 team, which had just transitioned under new ownership to Lotus and retained both Kubica and Vitaly Petrov for the season.
The Frenchman admitted that while the team worked to secure a replacement, they had lost one of their most valuable assets.
Nick Heidfeld was brought in as Kubica’s stand-in, but Boullier said he was “not on Robert’s level,” highlighting the talent gap left in the team.
Kubica looked set for great things in F1 before his accident
Despite the devastation, Boullier worked to stabilise the team around its remaining drivers.
The 2011 season was a challenging one, and the loss of Kubica was a blow not only to team morale but to its competitive potential on the track.
“We knew we now had to make changes, and we did,” Boullier explained. “Kimi [Räikkönen] had been out of F1 for two years, doing a bit of rallying, but he wanted to come back to F1, and we thought he’d be worth taking a chance on.
In 2008, Robert Kubica left the Canadian Grand Prix an F1 winner — and leading the championship. A year earlier, he had been lucky to leave with his life, as Matt Bishop remembers
“Alongside him, I brought in one of my Gravity [Sports Management] drivers, Romain Grosjean, who was young and superfast, especially over one lap. I thought Romain’s qualifying pace would keep Kimi digging deep, and it worked.”
Kubica would eventually make a remarkable return to Formula 1 nine years later with Williams, but the accident permanently curtailed what many considered a career destined for a championship.
“It was a traumatic time for all of us,” Boullier said. “Robert survived, thank God, but we all had to come to terms with the fact that one mistake in motor sport can change everything. It was a harsh reminder of how fragile a career can be.”
The full interview with Boullier appears in the latest issue of Motor Sport
