Robert Kubica watched the entire Australian grand prix from his Italian hospital room, and afterwards sent a text message to congratulate teammate Vitaly Petrov for securing the first podium of his career.<\/p>\n
“Robert followed the race like a child follows his favourite Disney cartoon,” manager Daniele Morelli, who watched the race with Kubica along with the Pole’s girlfriend Edyta, told La Stampa newspaper.<\/p>\n
“In the end he said the car showed performance beyond expectations, even though he had realised from the Barcelona test that it could be competitive.<\/p>\n
“He wanted to congratulate Petrov for a superb performance in both qualifying and the race,” said Morelli.<\/p>\n
It is believed Kubica’s text message to Petrov was via team boss Eric Boullier.<\/p>\n
Morelli also said Kubica was “impressed and moved” by the many tributes and best wishes from within the paddock.\u00a0 “He feels he has many friends,” he added.<\/p>\n
Renault is still assessing whether it will be Russian Petrov or Nick Heidfeld who will best stand in for Kubica as the clear team leader.<\/p>\n
Asked by the BBC if he can fulfil the role, Petrov said after his Melbourne podium: “I don’t need to answer anything.\u00a0 You can see.”<\/p>\n
But it is true that German veteran Heidfeld’s poor race performance was exacerbated by a severely damaged sidepod in Australia.<\/p>\n
Team boss Eric Boullier, however, said Petrov has upped his game since 2010.<\/p>\n
“He was nowhere a year ago, not zero, but F1 is a challenge.\u00a0 He is now a guy who clearly has his place in F1,” he is quoted by L’Equipe.<\/p>\n
“He made some good progress but knowing the pace of Robert, whether he could have been better or worse, I don’t want to think of it,” added Boullier.<\/p>\n
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