Robert Kubica will return to the race track this weekend at the Red Bull Ring as Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN will run him in first practice for the Styrian Grand Prix in place of Antonio Giovinazzi.
Kubica, who raced for Williams Racing in 2019 and scored the teams one and only point during the wet-dry German Grand Prix, joined Alfa Romeo as their third and reserve driver for 2020, as well as finding a race seat in the German-based DTM Series.
The veteran Polish drivers last on-track action in a Formula 1 car came during pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in February when he drove two morning sessions in the C39-Ferrari in place of Giovinazzi and team-mate Kimi Räikkönen.
“I am looking forward to returning to action this weekend, especially after the long break the whole world of motorsport had to observe,” said Kubica. “My objective, as always, is to provide as much data as possible for our engineers and to give them my feedback from within the cockpit.
“This weekend will be quite a new experience for everyone, racing in the same venue we were on just a few days ago, so it will be a matter of refining all the data we collected over the course of the Austrian Grand Prix and testing the adjustments we want to make to the cars.”
Frédéric Vasseur, the Team Principal of Alfa Romeo Racing, believes the experience of Kubica will certainly be beneficial to the team as they bid to improve the performance of the C39.
Neither Giovinazzi nor Räikkönen escaped out of Q1 during Qualifying last weekend, although the former was able to bring home two points with a ninth-place finish.
“I am looking forward to seeing Robert in the car on Friday,” said Vasseur. “A driver with his experience always comes up with valuable feedback and he’ll be able to help us continue learning about our car.
“Robert was with the team last weekend, of course, and so he is fully aware of everything that was discussed in the engineering meetings and during each session: it’ll be a chance for him to experience the car by himself and, armed with that knowledge, help us progress further.”
