Ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica admits that it is time to change his approach as he tries to arrest a poor finishing record starting with Rally Argentina this weekend.
After winning the WRC 2 title last year, Kubica’s elevation to a full-blown WRC campaign with the M-sport operation has yielded scant results.
Kubica’s step into the WRC arena has been plagued with crashes in his Ford Fiesta RS.
The Polish flyer is, for the first time, taking a cautious approach in Argentina by vowing not to attack every stage with the express purpose of being fastest.
“Argentina will be another new and difficult event for me, but I am hoping that it will be better than the previous rallies,” Kubica said in a team statement.
“I will try to change my approach – going back to the way I tackled events when I first began my WRC career.
“Driving on gravel I must focus more on survival and getting to finish as opposed to driving as fast as I can.”
Kubica has been frustrated with the start to his WRC season but is determined to ride out the rough times and see his goals come to fruition.
“When I made the decision to go rallying, I knew what I was getting into and I cannot allow the past few months to write-off my goals and ambitions.
Fresh from claiming its first stage wins the Shell Hyundai World Rally Team remains focussed on gathering more experience.
The German-based outfit has performed some testing in northern Portugal to prepare for the Argentine test that is punctuated by soft, sandy gravel and water splashes.
Team principal Michel Nandan hopes to build on the efforts from the pair of i20s spearheaded by Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul in the #7 and Spain’s Dani Sordo and Marc Marti in the #8.
“For sure it’s another tough event with the weather being difficult to predict,” Nandan said.
“As far as our objectives are concerned we are looking at building another positive performance with Thierry and Dani to continue our work on the development of the Hyundai i20 WRC.”
Rally Argentina is based at Villa Carlos Paz, 30 minutes from Cordoba city and covers 14 competitive stages with a total distance of 405km.
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