He had defied the odds to come back from a life-changing injury.ĭuring his early career Kubica was tipped as a future star, achieving a podium on only his third race and in 2008 he was in championship contention before BMW Sauber decided to focus its resources on 2009. His results in 2019 were not spectacular and he was well beaten by his young Williams team-mate George Russell in what was by far the worst-performing car on the grid, but results were not fundamentally what his return was about. A crash during a rally in Italy in early 2011 that almost severed his right hand meant that it was expected that he would never be able to return to the top level of motorsport. Robert Kubica's return to F1 was one of the feel-good stories of the decade. Robert Kubicaīest championship position before break: 4th (2008)īest championship position after break: 19th (2019) Prost's extra year in F1 gave him his fourth title that means that even now only three drivers have more championship victories than the Frenchman. He scored seven wins and 13 pole positions on the way to the title, but faced with the prospect of Senna becoming his Williams team-mate, and all the bitterness and politics that would entail, he chose to retire for good. This was helped by Prost's ability to drive cleanly and clinically to success, making it look all too easy. He returned to F1 with Williams in 1993 and it seemed inevitable that he would win the championship in what was the best car on the grid. In 1984 Prost lost out on the title to team-mate Niki Lauda by half a point and the very reason he ended up sitting out the 1992 season was that he was fired after publicly criticising his off-the-pace Ferrari. His statistics are impressive and could have been even more so if it was not for reliability issues at McLaren in 1980 and during his three years at Renault. Prost took three titles and enjoyed a notorious rivalry with Ayrton Senna in his first F1 stint between 19. PLUS: Schumacher's top 10 F1 victories Alain Prostīest championship position before break: 1st (1985, 1986, 1989)īest championship position after break: 1st (1993) Schumacher's Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg had the better of him in each of the three seasons they were partnered and his return is remembered as a somewhat unflattering addendum to his glorious F1 career. He achieved one podium after his return, a third place at Valencia in 2012, but in the scraps for race wins his place had been taken by the likes of still rising stars Lewis Hamilton and Vettel. But after an absence of four years and driving for Mercedes, circumstances had changed for the now 41-year-old German. His strong relationship with Ferrari allowed for a dominance the likes of which had never been seen before in F1. The seven-time world champion was an undefeatable force for much of his first stint in F1 and he remains the most successful driver in the championship of all time.
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