Kubica vows to return to F1 'stronger than ever'

"I want to get back on the track stronger than ever, because after these accidents you are not what you were before, you improve," Kubica said."It happened to me in 2007 too, after the crash in Canada. I was out for a race and when I got back I was better.

"A driver is not just throttle and steering wheel, it is more than that. There is a difference between someone who drives at 80 per cent and who does at 95 per cent: in that 15 per cent extra you find the abilities and the motivations coming out."

Kubica has been removed from the intensive care unit at Santa Corona Hospital, 35 miles south-west of Genoa, where he has been treated since crashing his Skoda Fabia during the Ronde di Andora rally last Friday.

The 26-year-old Pole partially severed his right hand in the accident as well as suffering several fractures. Doctors have said it could take a year to recover.

But Kubica said: "Since 2007, I am stronger head-wise as a driver. And it will be the same this time again, when I will be back in good physical shape. I must return this year."
The Lotus Renault driver said he could remember nothing about the rally accident.
"I am sorry for what has happened. I don't even know what happened. I can't remember anything of the crash. I found myself in hospital and everything was explained by my manager, Daniele Morelli, who has been here since Sunday."

Lotus Renault are to test Nick Heidfeld in Jerez, Spain as a possible replacement for Kubica. The 33-year-old German, 33, who had partnered Kubica at BMW Sauber, will test the R31 with second driver Vitaly Petrov and the team's reserve driver Bruno Senna.
Petrov continued a second day of testing Friday while Senna and Heidfeld will be at the wheel Saturday and Sunday.

Lotus Renault team chief Eric Boullier told auto motor sport magazine Heidfeld would test the car for a day and a half at the weekend."If he impresses us then he is our man. Then he will be in the car for the next tests in Barcelona," he said.