Rally Argentina has gone and preparations are well underway with the WRC teams for their Rally Sardegna campaign, but it's worth re-capping a very promising performance by a man who was sorely in need of it - Robert Kubica.
It may seem odd then, that the performance wasn't studded with fastest stage times or a podium finish. In fact, he didn't make the top five overall. But what he achieved was just as significant. He drove within his abilities and in doing so, he completed the event without crashing or leaving the road for the first time in five consecutive events. And it was absolutely no fluke.
As his post-event press release confirms, Kubica had been struggling with his pace notes, primarily on gravel, he believes, and he recognised that to be competitive the notes would have to play a much greater role in his technique if he was to fulfil his ambitions in the top level of the new sport.
To his credit, the performance in Argentina was evidence that he's serious about that change in approach. His per km pace was slower, sure, but the experience he got from completing the whole event is an invaluable aid to getting to grips with the undoubted challenges he faces, coming as he does from the more ordered world of F1.
As I mentioned in my previous post, he's a naturally fast driver, and once he's had the seat time to acclimatize to the demands of rallying at such an ultra-competitive level, that speed will show. As it was, Argentina provided the proof that even while doing what was for all purposes a high speed recce, his sixth place finish was a fantastic result.
Expect his performance to improve again in Sardegna and a finish in the top five there would surely help both his confidence and his technique. I have no idea who Kubica has been listening to (Malcolm Wilson maybe?) but if he keeps heeding that advice, the rapid Pole will be a genuine challenger for the championship in 2015.
And the sport needs people of Kubica's profile and calibre to keep the fans and sponsors interested. I, for one, am now quietly confident that he won't disappoint.
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