Why Kubica won't walk away from Williams

There was a time when Robert Kubica's reaction to the kind of uncompetitiveness his current Williams Formula 1 car is exhibiting would have been to launch a barrage of angry words at his bosses, designers, engineers, and anyone else who happened to be in earshot.

In his last spell in F1, both at BMW-Sauber and Renault, he was known as a hard taskmaster, as tough on himself as he was on his teams.

Nothing less than perfection would be good enough - and if he saw areas that weren't up to standard, he wasn't afraid to let rip.

Who can forget how upset he got in 2008 when BMW bosses ignored his calls for the teams to ramp up development of that season's car because he felt he had a shot at the championship? He never let them forgot about the missed opportunity of that campaign, especially when his worst fears came true and the team's '09 car fell short.

Had the old-spec Kubica found himself in this year's Williams, you can only imagine the emotional explosion in pre-season testing.

And if he had not stormed off in a fury then, you can be sure there would have been some choice words - and a big showdown - in Australia instead.

That such a flashpoint has not happened says all you need to know about Kubica's return to F1 as a different man.

This has nothing to do with the arm injury from that horrific rally crash in 2011. In finishing the Australian Grand Prix, he showed that physical aspects aren't holding him back.

Rather, Kubica has returned a more mellow human being. He's more understanding of everything going on around him, and he's all the better for it.

Reflecting on his F1 comeback - an achievement that drew a round of applause from his competitors in a pre-Melbourne press conference - Kubica said that he surprised himself by how emotional he was afterwards about the whole thing, despite coming home last.

"I have been with Williams for 16 months, so I know the difficulties, and I somehow used Australia to find my limits. Normally you would never do it on a race weekend but we have nothing to lose" Robert Kubica

"Even if I struggled, I still enjoyed it - which is a big difference compared with a long time ago," he said.

"It is probably because I know where I'm coming from. I'm not an emotional guy but in the end, after the race, for me, it felt like a great achievement."

The years away from F1, when the physical limits meant rallying and GT cars were all he could compete in, have clearly taught him valuable lessons that had never got through before.

"I understand better let's say, because you're getting older and you understand different things," he explains about the change.

"I think the rally period also helped where I did run my own team. It helped to understand difficulties that you can go through as a team manager and team principal. Sometimes I was a three-in-one or four-in-one: I was team principal, team owner, driver and logistics [manager]. So it gives you a better overview."

The new-spec Kubica better understands the hurdles that need to be overcome, and that he's playing catch-up. For example, the Australian GP was the first standing start he had performed since the 2010 F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

"I'm speaking quite honestly because I have to learn most of the things, or relearn them or refind them," he said. "I need to retune them to a different F1.

"I have been with the team 16 months, so I know the difficulties, and I somehow used this weekend to find my limits. Normally you would never do it on a race weekend but we have nothing to lose."

Kubica is very much paying the price for the late arrival of the 2019 Williams car. At the very time he needed maximum mileage to learn about the new generation of cars, and how best to set up the new aerodynamics, he was left waiting.

Further problems on days he did run also held back progress, and left him open about just how far behind he felt his preparations were.

"I think most people underestimated this," he said. "When I said in Barcelona that I felt 20% prepared, it was not that I was at 20% - it was that I'd tested 20% of the things which I was supposed to go through.

"I was fighting for my life. It makes a huge difference how you approach the weekend" Robert Kubica

"There are little things like in terms of the comfort in the car, which we have to improve, because when you're running behind schedule with parts to be able to run the car, somehow you don't have resources to take care of everything.

"There are many things which people think are invisible but it makes your weekend easier or more difficult."

Kubica also knows that he has to try to find out where the actual limit is. That's something that only comes from occasionally going over it, as he did in Melbourne qualifying when he misjudged the width of the car and brushed the wall.

"I said to the guys before Barcelona that last year I never went off the track once. And there will be a moment where I have to try in order to think 'OK, that's it,'" he said.

"The qualifying mistake was not pushing. It was a misjudgement. But all these things you learn. It's like, for example, when you're a rookie. I was fighting for my life. It makes a huge difference how you approach the weekend."

The change in Kubica means there are no worries of him throwing his toys out of the pram at Williams. He knows the determination and dedication he has put in to make it back to being an F1 driver.

Kubica has no intention of wasting that effort by abandoning it simply because Williams is facing some tough times over the coming months.

If Williams fares as badly in Abu Dhabi eight months from now as it did in Australia, then his attitude may change. But for now, Kubica insists there is everything to play for and that he needs to improve as much as his car.

"Knowing how F1 has changed, I'm honest enough with myself to judge properly and correctly what I have to learn, where I have to learn and where I have to improve. I think only this approach brought me back to F1 and actually to keep fighting.

"Otherwise for me it would have been much easier six years ago to accept opportunities I had in GT3 or DTM, enjoy, have even less stress, and probably have more fun with driving because I would be probably fighting for better positions.

"But somehow there is a reason I'm here. And it might be that at the end of the year I will regret something, but one thing I will not regret is to try. Very simple."