Renault's chief race engineer Alan Permane knows who his team has to thank for, as Kubica's great racing abilities, together with his continuous feedback provided to the engineers, have turned Renault into top favorite for a 5th place in the manufacturers' race.
“He simply hasn't put a foot wrong. He got hit on the first lap in Bahrain but then battled back strongly to 11th place. He drove a perfect race in Melbourne under a lot of pressure and it was the same in Malaysia,” said Permane in an interview with Formula One's official website.
“Robert's very consistent, he's very fast and he's very hard working: we've been extremely impressed with the amount of time he spends with his engineers. He's a very, very good all-round driver,” added the Renault official.
Until now, Kubica brought Renault F1 their only points in the overall classification, following his podium finish in Australia and 4th place at Sepang. Although himself sitting in 7th place in the drivers' race, he is only 9 points behind championship leader Felipe Massa, being the last driver in the 30-point leading field.
As far as his teammate Vitaly Petrov goes, Permane emphasized the Russian's ability to make up positions at the start of the race – each time emerging close or inside the Top 10 after the first lap, despite starting from further down the order – and admitted his DNF's this season have mainly been caused by reliability issues.
“It was encouraging to see Vitaly fighting hard for his position and not giving up. It was a real shame that his race was brought to an end by a technical problem with the gearbox,” said the Renault engineer.
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