Why Monaco is where Kubica proved his greatness

Nobody who witnessed from close quarters Robert Kubica in action in Monaco in 2010 could have any doubts about his status as a potential world champion. Behind the wheel of the nimble Renault R30, he performed with a verve rarely seen on the twists and turns of grand prix racing's oldest street track.

The memories of watching him from trackside at Casino Square, Mirabeau and down at Swimming Pool are indelible. This was a true display of virtuosity. It says a lot about Kubica that the man himself instantly points to the undoubted strengths of the car as the key to the weekend he took the fourth-fastest car on pace to a front-row starting position and third in the race, beaten only by two Red Bulls. After all, give a great driver the machinery, and they will do the seemingly impossible.

"I shouldn't say it, but I was massively helped by the car there," says Kubica. "It was very friendly, very easy to predict. This performance was something I expected after the second test I did at Jerez with Renault in February.

"I had dinner with a few people from the team and also Gerard Lopez, who owned the team, and said, 'So what will happen if I finish on the podium in Monaco?'. Everybody looked at me as if I was crazy. I tried to have a bet with him, which was crazy because Renault ended 2009 with very poor performance.

"But I ended that test very positive, very keen on how the car felt and how it reacted to changes. I saw my engineer at the time, Simon Rennie, and asked what was going on because I didn't understand why we were so fast! These are the moments that you don't see from outside but that stay in your memory. In Monaco, I had very good confidence straight away. It wasn't easy but it felt very natural."

Kubica's perspective, of course, is a little different from those of the average driver. Capable of amazing things behind the wheel, it's no coincidence that his best performances of that season came on the three great driver's tracks - Monaco, Spa and Suzuka - as well as on the esoteric roads of Albert Park in Australia.

Give a great driver a good, usable, car and they will do amazing things. Team-mate Vitaly Petrov, a Monaco Grand Prix rookie but a capable driver with experience of the track from GP2, was a second behind him in qualifying and proves it wasn't as easy as Kubica makes it sound.

A great driver truly at one with a car is a majestic sight, particularly in the tight confines of a street track where you can see up close every tiny adjustment and the difference in the speed carried through the corner.

"The car was definitely not the fastest on the grid, but it was probably one of the easiest I ever drove," continues Kubica. "So it gave you a kind of freedom, there would be no bad surprises. This unlocks something extra, the kind of performance that if you have a difficult car you can't have because you have to keep your margin in case something happens.

"That car was almost inviting you to give more, it would never let you down in difficult moments. And, on tracks where you could influence your lap time or result by giving something extra, I performed well."

Kubica slipped to third behind Sebastian Vettel at the start in a race won by Mark Webber, himself something of a Monaco star, and it says a lot that a result that seemed so unlikely was seen by some as disappointing.

Something astonishing and unforgettable from the outside seems more mundane to the magician who knows the secrets of the trick. But it does not make the trick any less spectacular, or the artist any less brilliant

"Starting second in Monaco is the worst," says Kubica. "It's a good achievement if you are able to hold on, but I ended up third and you cannot do anything unless something happens during the pitstops.

"What is funny is you do something as big as I did there, but still people are 'only third?'. When I said what will happen if I finished on the podium three months earlier, everybody looked at me like I was crazy! So people got used to it very quickly.

"But from where we were, it was a great year. In the end, I wasn't part of it after because of my accident in 2011, but this year gave a big boost to the team. In the years after, they delivered some amazing results with the budget they had."

Kubica's performance during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend at Suzuka stands out more for him. There, he qualified a sensational third and was running second under the safety car when the Renault shed its right-rear wheel on lap three - earning a rare maximum score in Autosport's driver ratings in the process, despite barely featuring in the race.

"The best moment of that year was Suzuka," says Kubica. "What nobody knew is we had a floor issue in qualifying so the car was not up to the downforce level we should have. It was raining and qualifying was postponed to Sunday, but we did an installation lap on Saturday and the car was full of water, which got in the floor. When I left the garage in Q1, the floor split into two pieces so I was nearly out.

"The guys tried to repair it but there were holes in the floor. In Q2, I did another step in performance but Q3 was, for me, one of the most amazing laps. I was told the car was so difficult to drive because we were lacking rear downforce, but because it was so friendly it was balanced and you were able to recover pretty well.

"It was the kind of weekend where you have the feeling like at Monaco and you know you have it. But you either have that in the results, or they get forgotten and my race in Japan ended on lap three."

Kubica might be able to deconstruct that weekend as a result of a benign, pretty quick car, but it took the living, breathing human being at the centre to channel that into something extraordinary.

It says something about the difference in perspective, as something astonishing and unforgettable from the outside seems more mundane to the magician who knows the secrets of the trick. But it does not make the trick any less spectacular, or the artist any less brilliant.

The great drivers make the extraordinary, ordinary. And in reality it's never easy in Monaco - just ask Fernando Alonso, who shunted heavily at Massenet (pictured below) on Saturday morning that year and had to start at the back with a new monocoque.

"There is no magic," says Kubica. "If you have a car which allows you to do it, then you are able to do it. If your car doesn't allow you to do it, there is no way you can do it, or you can do it one, two, three laps but it is much more difficult.

"It would be easy for me to talk about how well I performed and take your memories all as credit to me, but it's always a combination of how you drive and what you have. On those kinds of tracks, the car helps a lot."

But so, too, does the driver. It wasn't the only time Kubica's virtuosity shone through, and watching him work the car through the Esses at Suzuka later that same year also stands out - and he's far from the only driver to have caught the eye over the years. But for sheer, sustained brilliance, on-the-edge commitment and lightning-fast corrections, Monaco 2010 will never be forgotten.

It's a very different driver, and man, who's back in Monaco this week. This is the first time Kubica has returned to Monaco to drive since his life-changing accident in early 2011. And he returns in a car that is neither as user-friendly, nor anywhere near as competitive, as the Renault R28, on something of a hiding to nothing during a nightmare comeback season.

"Monaco is a very special track," says Kubica. "I remember in the past already the feeling was that it is too narrow and with these much bigger cars it will be a big challenge. But I'm looking forward to it. You never know what to expect, you have to build your confidence and try your best."

Qualifying anywhere not on the back row on merit would be a performance every bit as good as, or even transcending, what he did in 2010. That really would be rolling back the years.