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F1: Robert Kubica crash raises F1 danger dilemma

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Khatir Soltani
Adapted from GMM

Should the Lotus Renault driver take part in such a competition at the beginning of the season.

Video footage and photos show that a length of armco barrier skewered the car from front to rear. Kubica's co-driver has criticised the roads and the front-impact safety standards of the car.

But others argued that the highly paid 26-year-old should not have been competing at all.

"You've got to look after that investment. It's quite a challenge to stop drivers doing the things I believe are unwise leading up to a F1 season," triple world champion and former team owner and boss Sir Jackie Stewart told the Telegraph.

Renault chief Eric Boullier, however, said the freedom to rally is so important to Kubica, who for years was not allowed to according to the terms of his BMW contract.

Former BMW-Sauber team boss Mario Theissen told the Associated Press: "What's the point in pushing hard for the highest safety standards in F1 if a driver is then seriously hurt in other racing activities?"

The German said he always had "sympathy" for Kubica's passions, but "The driver is key to success in F1. Only he can turn the tremendous effort of several hundred equally determined people into results."

To L'Equipe in France, however, Boullier defended Kubica's freedom to rally on the basis that "He could also have been run over by a bus going to get his bread".

But Martin Brundle said it was "crazy" for Kubica to be rallying in between key F1 tests, and Canadian driver Patrick Carpentier agrees.

"If I was to blame someone, it would be his team, who should never have released him (to rally). Especially (not) so close to the start of the new season, and between two test sessions. What bad timing," he told the Canadian French language Rue Frontenac.

Robert Kubica's car after the crash. (Photo: Associated Press)

Khatir Soltani
Khatir Soltani
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