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Robert Kubica could be handed a route back to Formula 1 as Pirelli's test driver next year, the tyre company's motorsport director Paul Hembery has said.

Pirelli is set to require a replacement for Jaime Alguersuari, who looks poised to make a full-time return to F1 - potentially with Force India if one of its drivers leaves.

Although Kubica's hand is still some way off being recovered enough to allow him to drive an F1 car in anger, Hembery has admitted that once the Pole is ready then Pirelli would be more than willing to give him an opportunity.

A return to action with Pirelli would also make sense because the company is to keep the 2010 Renault test car it has used so far for another year. That is the same machine that Kubica raced two years ago.

Speaking about the possibility Hembery said: "We are more likely to work with Robert in rallying I guess, rather than F1, but we will see.

"I haven't spoken to Robert for some time and we are working on a few projects that might involve him, so it might well be a possibility.

"I don't know if he is able to do it at the moment. But he is that type of person if physically he could get back in, then maybe doing a year with us would put him in a good situation to come back in in 2014. It would be wonderful if we could do that.

"We want to continue our success level of helping drivers into F1. After an F1 drive, the Pirelli test deal has to be the best drive in the world."

Hembery says that with the 2014 technical regulations being so different, there is little point wasting time trying to secure a more up-to-date machine to replace the Renault.

"There is probably no point," he said. "If we are going to be testing next year for 2014, then that is a different challenge - and no car will be relevant for that. So we will probably see the Renault 2010 car just being heavily modified."