MONTREAL // Robert Kubica understands the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's potential pitfalls better than most, yet absolutely adores the place. In 2007, his first full season as a Formula One driver, the Pole was fortunate to escape with no more than a sprained ankle and a shaking after somersaulting out of the Canadian Grand Prix at 170mph.
The most serious consequence? Doctors advised him to miss the following race, at Indianapolis, seven days later. "I'm a big fan of street circuits," he said, "but I'm also a big fan of safety. "I have been through a big crash here in Canada and know there has to be a balance. "Thanks to [governing body] the FIA and the teams, F1 has become much safer. "If I had crashed ten years ago with the kind of big impact I had in 2007, I probably wouldn't be here now."
One year later he returned to Montreal to score his first - and, so far, only - F1 success, but that, however, is not the reason he relishes the circuit. "I don't know why," he said, "but I like it when the walls are close and there is only a very small margin for error. "It is always more challenging and, for me at least, that makes it more fun to drive. I have always felt that way, even during my younger days, when I was racing Formula Three cars on street circuits such as Macau."
Another typically robust qualifying performance - he starts eighth - makes Kubica a decent top-three candidate in a traditionally topsy-turvy race today. Montreal is similar in nature to both Melbourne and Monaco, where earlier this season he recorded podium finishes, and the Renault is close enough to the pace to be a factor at venues where the driver can make a significant difference. For all his obvious prowess - Lewis Hamilton rates Kubica as the toughest adversary he encountered on the sport's nursery slopes - the Pole's chances of mounting a serious title bid hinge on a Renault revival.
The team has endured a slump in form since guiding Fernando Alonso to back-to-back championship victories in 2005 and 2006, but is slowly edging back into contention and is currently vying with Ferrari and Mercedes for the unwanted honour of being best of the rest, behind Red Bull-Renault and McLaren. Recent rumours had linked Kubica to a Ferrari seat in 2011, alongside Alonso, but that prospect withered last week, when the Italian team re-signed Felipe Massa for two more seasons.
With the ink on Mark Webber's Red Bull contract extension still fresh, it means all next year's most coveted seats are already taken before the current campaign has reached its halfway point. Massa insists his focus has not been deflected in the slightest by recent speculation. "There have been different rumours every year since I came to Ferrari," he said, "but I don't care because they have never been true."
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