Nick Heidfeld announced to fill Bob's seat.

After setting the fastest time during a recent practice session at Jerez in Renault's very forward thinking new car. Nick Heidfeld has been announced as the replacement driver to fill in Robert Kubica's seat following the Polish drivers rally accident.

The 33 year old German driver's selection comes as no surprise to me considering out of the possibilities that were considered; Bruno Senna, Antonio Liuzzi and Nico Hulkenberg, Heidfeld is by far the most experienced considering his 172 races in the last 11 seasons.

Let's just hope he doesn't take the doors off the safety car this time.

"We can rebuild him — we have the technology,"

 After suffering a terrible Rally car accident  while racing in the Ronde di Andorra in Italy on Sunday, Lotus-Renault's Robert Kubica seems to be back into a stable condition. 

Following the accident, Robert was airlifted to a nearby medical center where he underwent seven hours of surgery to reconstruct his right forearm. Yesterday, he was able to communicate with medical staff and his family. 

Additional surgery is set to take place on Thursday to stabilise fractures to Kubica’s right shoulder and right foot. After that, another operation will take place to treat his elbow fracture. Kubica is expected to stay at the Santa Corona Hospital for the couple weeks.


In the mean time, with the start of the 2011 F1 Season, LRGP is scrambling to find a temporary driver to fill in Robert's spot. Several reports indicate Bruno Senna as a likely replacement. Other possibilities include Antonio Liuzzi and Nico Hulkenberg.  

On the wings of Victory, Kubica injured

Fresh from a very successful Formula One testing session at Valencia; the Lotus Renault GP Formula One driver crashed his Skoda rally car into a guard rail.

Kubica has suffered serious damage to his right hand and arm as well as his right leg. The Pole was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he is being overseen by Dr. Riccardo Ceccarelli, the doctor of the Lotus Renault GP team. 

Kubica’s manager Daniele Morelli says it’s too soon to speculate upon the process of recovery.

“Unfortunately the impact with the guardrail caused serious harm,” Morelli told the Italian media outside the hospital. “He has been diagnosed with multiple fractures to his leg and right arm, especially complications related to his right hand. We shall see later if the operation was successful. The clinical picture is not easy. We expect to make the necessary assessments tonight.”

It is currently unknown how the crash might affect Kubica's racing career. Although none of the injuries are life-threatening, a handful of unofficial reports claim that it might just be enough to end his racing career.

“The surgeons are trying to restore the functionality of his right hand. We must now think about the muscle function, but Robert has a very strong temper and will succeed.

“The important thing is that Robert recoveries, as it has already proven to do with the incident in Canada. On that occasion it took him three months to get back on track.”

This won't be Kubica's first rodeo however. In 2007 in Montreal, he managed to recover in several months from a terrible crash when his BMW Sauber F1 car went careening off the track.

It goes without saying that Formula One drivers have a very hazardous line of work and that teams are always taking a huge risk when they let their drivers compete in other forms of motorsport; crashes happen all the time and who knows what can happen. Still that has never prevented Renault from permitting Kubica to participate in Rally on the side. Unlike his counterpart Kimi Raikkonen, Kubica has proven to actually be a competent rally driver.

I do wish Robert a speedy recovery. I've always been at least a little bit of a fan of him. It will be great to see him back to full health soon.

Renault reveals its "Brave new design" in the R31

Title says it all really, Renault popped out it's interesting take on a 2011 Formula One contender. This has been quite anticipated by myself as Renault has been sneaking us the idea with their "brave new design" claim. Honestly, at first glance, it's not too "brave" but with closer examination, this claim may have some merit to it. 

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves: