giraurd wrote:mario wrote:Faustus wrote:How long is it going to be before Williams comes out to say that Kubica didn't get the drive because of the PKN Orlen deal, it was all synergistic and a coincidence and an interesting opportunity and he's not really a pay driver at all and he was always our first choice and and and...
Do they even need to try and defend the decision?
Most of the press
and the fan base seem to be so in love with the romantic notion of Kubica returning to the sport that very few seem to be even mentioning the PKN Orlen. Equally, from the experience that Joe Saward had, where he did question whether Kubica was the best driver for Williams and did ask whether Kubica's sponsorship was the most decisive factor and ended up on the end of some pretty nasty abuse, I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few journalists don't want to raise the question because of what happened to him.
I don't notice it at all. Maybe I'm missing the hordes of fanboys because I'm not reading about F1 on twitter or other social media - but at least on various forums and reddit the news were received with people being happy for the guy but also healthy skepticism about his abilities being up to the 2010 level & with the vast majority entirely recognizing that Kubica's money was a large factor of the deal (though most likely not the *only* decisive, since Sirotkin was still reportedly ready to bring a bunch of money to Williams).
As for Saward - he spent the entire year dismissing Robert's chances to ever race an F1 car, and then when the confirmation came anyway, Joe attacked the mysterious (quoted) "Kubica fan boys" in his writings, for merely disagreeing with his interpretation that it was *only* RK's money that bought him the seat. Now I'm not saying anyone deserves straight up abuse - but with that unprofessional level of rhethoric, what did Saward expect...
I'll agree that it is all too true that quite a few of his problems are self inflicted due to his rather smug and antagonistic attitude towards the fan base. Still, it does seem to me to be the case that the media coverage has mainly played up the heroic aspects and tended to gloss over some of the questions that some in the fan base have been asking.
Fetzie wrote:I think another factor is that Williams DESPERATELY needs some kind of feel-good story, after their last couple of seasons. Also if he turns out to be not up to F1 standards, his fans can say "of course he didn't get out of Q1 in all but one of the races, look at the car he's driving", thus leaving the illusions of his capabilities intact.
It's probably not just Williams that were looking for that sort of feel-good story, as I suspect that Liberty Media were looking for that sort of story as well. The honeymoon period for them seems to have worn off and the fan base seems to be turning on the people whom they used to praise for driving Bernie out, and there was something of a sense of fatigue and resignation this year as the championship battle fizzled out so quickly.
The return of Kubica is, from their point of view, potentially useful as a way of distracting from some of the criticism they've had from fans and the media and helped to create positive headlines about the sport at a time when there are still doubts over whether they can start pushing viewing figures back up again. I do wonder if the fact that the news first leaked from the official F1 site from a video trailer which they had produced announcing Kubica's return to the sport was entirely accidental, or whether they might have had an interest in "mistakenly" leaving that clip up there.
At the very least, their sponsors are footing the bill (something every team welcomes nowadays)
Renault were smart, and knew the only driver around capable of living up to the legend of Kubica was of course Quick Nick!
shows how much I know 
