Kubica: Budapest is sort of home GP for me

Robert Kubica gets ready for action

Jul.29 (Renault) Robert Kubica speaks ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix at Hungaroring. The Pole expects a large contingent of his supporters to make the trip from Poland to Budapest, making it about as good as a home Grand Prix for him.

Robert is hoping that Budapest suits Renault's R30

You finished seventh in Germany, ahead of both Mercedes – were you happy with the outcome of the race?
I think we achieved the limit of our car and we were ‘best of the rest’ in Hockenheim, but we know that there is a big gap to the fastest teams at the moment – and also that the teams behind us are very close. This means that we have to get everything perfect across the race weekend to qualify in the top ten, and finish in the points.

Is the Hungaroring likely to play more to the strengths of the R30?
I think it will be a more suitable track for our car and I hope we can be closer to the front than we were in Germany. But I honestly don’t think we can hope to repeat the kind of pace we showed in Monaco earlier this season.

Robert in action at the German Grand Prix

What challenges does the Hungaroring present for a Formula 1 car?
It’s a very difficult track to set the car up for because there are long corners where you need to have very good front grip, but on the other hand you need good rear stability. It’s also difficult for set-up because of the bumps and because there are lots of different kinds of corner, so you have to somehow concentrate on all areas of the set-up and car balance. And it’s very demanding physically and mentally because there are so many corners and there’s only really one straight, and even that is not so long. You don’t really have time to get back your energy and relax, so you are always concentrating.

This is the closest grand prix to your home country of Poland. Does that make it a special event?
I’m really looking forward to the weekend and we usually see a lot of Polish fans coming to Budapest, so it’s a sort of home grand prix for me and for the Polish fans. I am expecting a lot of people to come, and a good atmosphere from the crowd, so we are hoping that we can put in a good performance for them.