Robert Kubica says he has made his decision regarding his future programme which is certainly a F1 test role in combination with a competitive DTM outing.
Having announced his departure from Williams Racing during the Singapore GP, Kubica has long said that he wishes to race full-time in a different series in future and combine it with a test role in F1 as sponsor ORLEN wishes to stay in the pinnacle of motor racing.
It is a complicated process especially with regards to the F1 programme as it involves not only simulator work but also track time, while the other part of racing full-time in DTM is pretty straightforward – although he needs the get-go from the team he will race for.
With Abu Dhabi GP being his last F1 race, possibly of his career too, Kubica stated that he knows what he will be doing in 2020 and beyond but cannot reveal the full details just yet as it still needs to be sealed off, with a F1/DTM programme most likely thing to happen.
“I think decision from my side has been taken, at some point, I don’t want to go too much into the details now,” said Kubica to media including FormulaRapida.net in Abu Dhabi. “It’s a bit more complicated stuff and we have to make sure we make it work from different perspectives and different points.
“Hopefully once this will be sorted it will be, let’s say, a downhill procedure and it should be sorted quite soon. I hope it is done before Christmas. I mean, I was thinking already in September that it will be quite soon, but then we are nearly in December. I’m pretty optimistic and although not everything depends from my side and it has been more complicated because as I said in Brazil I would like to combine different programmes.
“It requires a bit more work and it is a bit more compromises, so let’s see what will be possible, but I think the ingredients are all there, now is a question of mixing them up properly, hopefully it will work well. I have my idea. But I would say my racing programme is let’s say 100 percent up to me, my F1 role, or let’s say, of course there is a second part which is ORLEN, they would like to stay in F1.
“We want to see if we can match everything together, as I think would be beneficial for everyone. So, sometimes it takes more time than only my decision. I’m racing [which is foremost] and I think definitely I’m looking for a big challenge, and definitely DTM [other than F1], which is the highest probability that I will be racing [in].
“It’s probably the toughest championship apart of F1 in Europe, where joining very high level racing drivers in very very specific championship is not easy for someone who is a rookie there – but I think, let’s put it in this way, if I would manage to be racing there, I would be happy with it, and as I said, if we manage to combine a few things to make everybody happy, I’m open to this.”
Here’s the announcement of F1 2020 from Williams Nicholas Latifi
