The F1 Thread

[Law's Bus]

Any of you F1 officianados read www.JamesAllenOnF1.com.

Yes, and Joe Saward's blog at http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

 

[jlo]

Joe Saward is a very good read, does anyone get his monday email - "Business of Motorsport"? I'm really looking forward to the season getting underway now.

 

[Nando]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9388940.stm

Not good news at all, get well soon Robert!

 

[Wombat del combate]

I did read that there was (early) concern that he may not come back to F1 at all, in light of prior injuries to his left arm. Is that still the case?

 

[Nando]

Rumours he might need his hand amputated. He's got steel rods through his left arm from a previous incident. I've got no medical expertise, but it's not sounding good at all.

 

[Wombat del combate]

Damn. Didn't realise it was that bad. Bad enough, yes, but for there to be even the consideration of an amputation...

 

[Nando]

It's his right side not his left. Sorry.

His manager sounds positive.

 

[Law's Bus]

That's terrible news - you just don't expect serious injuries like that to happen to F1 drivers any more.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Be very sad if he had to retire from the sport, been a big fan of Kubica since his broke through. Seems to be an increasing crop of drivers breaking through over the last few seasons that all look very capable, Kubica and Vettel being 2 of them that came out of nowhere, makes for much better watching when theres so many in the field with the potential to do something special.

 

[Nando]

His hand has been saved apparently.

 

[The Bear]

He's out for the season. They saved his hand being amputated but he's going to need extensive rehabilitation to get full functionality back. I really hope he's able to drive in F1 again.

Professor who carried out the op -

"The situation of the hand was clearly serious, it was nearly amputated and we’ve reconstructed completely, first recomponing the fracture and then working on muscles and nervous tissue. The operation has been successful, i don’t want to say too much but we’re quite confident. Kubica should get back the total functionality of the hand for his vital functions and maybe his driving profession. However, it will need some time, probably a whole year of rehabilitation.”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/el-carabobeno/5422183848/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Look at the fecking great hole in the bonnet and through the car in that above link. You can see the road through it!!

 

[Nando]

So he's out for the season, lets hope he can return next season. It's a great shame, was really looking forward to seeing him this season and was hoping he'd end up at Ferrari next season, that's not going to happen now.

 

[The Bear]

Renault (Lotus? Whatever!) are in the shit without him. Vitaly Petrov isn't a No.1 driver and they only have Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean as backup!

Wouldn't surprise me to see them move for a better driver. If it was me I'd be begging Force India if they'd let Hulkenberg go for the season.

 

[The Bear]

McLaren's car really does look very nice:

 

[Nando]

Love the front wing and sidepods, the nose looks far too long and flat though.

Heidfeld or Hulkenberg for Renault, Senna and Grosjean are back markers at best.

 

[The Bear]

From James Allen:

Hand reconstruction specialists in Italy have been working hard for seven hours to save the functionality of Robert Kubica’s right hand tonight after a high speed accident in a rally car this morning. After the operation finished, Dr Igor Rossello explained that an amputation was a possibility but that following surgery “the hand is alive,” although he added that ” we will have to wait a week before we will know if it will survive. ” More surgery might well be needed. He added that a recovery period of a year was to be expected.

Tonight I called a friend in London, Richard Young, who is a plastic surgeon specialising in hand reconstruction at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, for some insight into hand crush injury, of which he has extensive experience.

I wanted to know what the risks are in a situation such as this and likely recovery times. The caveat for all of what follows is that we do not know the precise details and therefore this is not a specific prognosis on Kubica, more some general medical principles for my -and your – background understanding.

Apparently when they say a hand is at risk of amputation it is because the blood supply to the hand has been severed. That is the first thing to restore and that has clearly been done, although it sounds as though there is some waiting to be done to see if the blood vessels will function again properly. Then it’s a question of whether the doctors can restore full functionality, to the level which an F1 driver needs. This means repairing the nerves and tendons and their work will determine whether Kubica will race again. How long the recuperation will take depends on how severe the injury was in the first place. If the doctor is now saying up to a year, it must have been a very severe injury.

Dr Rossello has said tonight that the repair of the nerves in the hand is the big doubt in terms of whether the hand will regain functionality.

The first point is that the energy in the accident was clearly very great if it also caused long bone injury such as the broken leg and arm which Kubica suffered. Kubica’s hand appears to have been crushed by some armco entering the cockpit. So the extent of the hand crush injury was likely to have been severe.

The hand has many small muscles, tendons and nerves, which if crushed are likely to reduce the ability to roll the fingers in and to make fine movements, such as picking up a pin or in the case of an F1 driver, operating the buttons and dials on the steering wheel. Damage to the nerves will impair feeling and this can take at least three months to return.

As for rehabilitation it is long and crucially there is no short cut. Sometimes when athletes break a bone they can speed up the repair by sitting in a chamber to boost oxygen or blood flow, but that will not apply in this case.

Here we are dealing with tendons and these must be protected for up to three months before any effort can be put through them, otherwise the tendons rupture again. Also if there is severe damage to nerves in the hand or forearm the ability to make fine movements can be lost forever.

Following seven hours of surgery this evening the doctor treating Robert Kubica has said that he believes the Polish driver will not know for one whole year whether his hand will regain functionality.

I’ve shown it to medics here in London tonight and it is clear from Dr Igor Rossello’s words that the extent of the reconstruction is massive, forearm, tendons, blood vessels, nerves. Kubica’s hand was obviously severely damaged and there are ongoing risks.

 

[The Bear]

Love the front wing and sidepods, the nose looks far too long and flat though.

Heidfeld or Hulkenberg for Renault, Senna and Grosjean are back markers at best.

There's always the huge historical marketing potential of a Senna helmet in a black/gold Lotus colour scheme though. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they let him have the drive.

 

[Nando]

Lets hope not, Chandhok was much better than him for HRT.

 

[leedswolf]

McLaren's car really does look very nice:

2 seater too ..................................

 

[Law's Bus]

There's always the huge historical marketing potential of a Senna helmet in a black/gold Lotus colour scheme though. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they let him have the drive.

That's assuming that they're allowed to claim to be "Lotus" after the court case, which is hardly guaranteed.

If I was Renault, I'd be straight on the phone to Nick Heidfeld - he's got the experience that the team will need, which all of the other sensible candidates don't really have.