Kubica: After 12 months I can say everything is easier!

Robert Kubica believes his confidence has grown since he made his Formula 1 test debut, at Hungaroring last year, after a full day stint during the recent in-season test in Budapest.

Speaking after the test, Kubica told reporters, “It was a good day. We had a mixed programme with some data collection for next year and trying to understand our car better for 2018."

"We also ran a few runs with the current car specification to help with the rest of the season. We have a lot of data to go through and analyse but it was a good test to end on before the summer break.”

“Twelve months ago I was here for the first time with Renault, and after 12 months I can say everything is easier! One year ago everything was new for me, especially with the new generation of Formula 1, and now everything is more familiar, easier and I’m more confident. So all good.”

On Wednesday, the final day of testing before the summer break, the Pole ended the day sixth fastest, “It was just more for the aero guys to get more information about it and what it does to the rest of the car and how the airflow is going to be distributed differently."

"We did end up also with trying a new livery on the last run with new paint. It looked nice, so maybe a change for next year!" joked Kubica with reference to the abundance of Flow-Viz paint on the ice white car which the team used on the final day.

Kubica was two seconds faster than Oliver Rowland who tested for Williams on day one (Tuesday) of proceedings at Hungaroring.

But he played down the difference in pace between the pair, “Actually I did a better lap on softs in the afternoon. We just used the tires that we had. It was not about lap time but the feeling was good, the pace on the soft tire was very good in lap time so it was all good. But the track is better, so it doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter.”

Kubica is scheduled to drive again for the team at the end-of-season test in Abu Dhabi later this year where he will have another opportunity to convince the Grove outfit that he is their man for the job in 2019.