Robert Kubica is a Formula 1 World Champion in-waiting, according to
Damon Hill – but the BMW-Sauber star himself is refusing to let paddock speculation that he is Ferrari-bound in the near future sway his focus from the remainder of the 2008 campaign.
Kubica currently sits fourth in the drivers' title chase with two-thirds of the season completed, and though he is still just 13 points off the head of the table, his challenge for glory has faded somewhat in tandem with
BMW's dip in form over recent grands prix, with no rostrum finish now since his breakthrough Canadian Grand Prix triumph back in early June.
Indeed, eighth place in Hungary last time out was the Pole's worst finish of the year to-date – and 1996
F1 World Champion Hill suggested that should BMW not improve fast, the Munich and Hinwil-based outfit could be set to lose its prize asset.
“You have to give credit to him,” the British Racing Drivers' Club President told British newspaper
The Sun. “There are always drivers who seem to have that tiny bit extra, and he is one of them. He seems very calm and together about the whole business of motor racing.”
“There are lots of drivers who arrive in F1 and you know that they're good, but they're sort of missing an ingredient,” he added in an interview with
The Associated Press. “I think he's got that extra ingredient. I'd be very surprised if he wasn't on the shopping list of the top teams.
“There comes a point where drivers want to be in F1 to win. They will demand to have the equipment to do that. I think BMW have a strategy which is ambitious, but at the moment they are not quite in the front line of
Formula 1.”
Kubica is in only his second full season in the top flight, but with five podium finishes from 33 races – four of them in 2008 – and his maiden pole position in Bahrain earlier this year, he is rapidly making his mark and is irrefutably ‘in the front line'. Whilst maintaining that he is encouraged by his progress thus far, the 23-year-old acknowledges that he is still a long way from achieving his targets.
