IN 2011, in the wake of a rally crash that partially severed his right hand, Robert Kubica looked like he would never drive a Formula 1 car ever again.

On June 6, 2017, he did exactly that.

Kubica returned to the cockpit of a F1 car at the same venue he last drove one, turning laps of a 2012-model car run by the Renault team at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain.

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“So why did we keep it quiet? It was a private test, for Robert,” the team wrote on social media.

“But we can tell you this ... Robert complained about grip, understeer, downforce and had the biggest smile on after his 115 laps!!”

Best news I've heard all week..💪💪👍 https://t.co/UEmHGAkk3m — Mark Webber (@AussieGrit) June 6, 2017

Kubica completed 115 laps during the test day. Pic: Renault Sport F1 Source: Supplied

The hope is that this may be the next step in what would be one of the greatest — and most warmly received — comebacks in F1 history.

That is because Kubica is the greatest lost talent of F1’s current generation; one driver that they all feared.

“For me the best driver is Robert Kubica,” said no less than Fernando Alonso in 2012.

“I am sure when he is going to return he is going to be the best driver of the group.”

Kubica celebrates finishing 3rd at Monaco in 2010. Source: Getty Images

THE RISE

The Polish driver arrived in the sport around the same time as Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg, swiftly earning the reputation of being one of the fastest drivers on the grid.

And one of the bravest.

Kubica walked away from a spectacular crash during the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, returning a year later to score the first F1 victory of what most believed were many to come. For much of 2008, he appeared a genuine challenger for the world championship.

Unlike his contemporaries, Kubica never found himself in the right car at the right time.

The global financial downturn saw BMW pull the plug on their F1 team at the end of the 2009 season. Kubica bobbed up at Renault as a replacement for a Ferrari-bound Alonso but the Enstone team, a few years removed from their title-winning seasons, was in a rebuilding period.

Nevertheless, his talent dragged the yellow and black machine further up the grid than it deserved to be. Kubica qualified second at Monaco and finished on the podium in the principality, at Albert Park, and in the wet at Spa-Francorchamps.

Kubica was fastest of all in the 2011 car’s maiden test at Valencia. Source: Getty Images

Then Renault, too, decided it no longer wanted to own its own F1 team, selling the squad off to Lotus for 2011. Kubica topping the times in a pre-season test at Valencia aboard their new car on February 1-4.

Still armed with the formidable Renault V8 engine, the squad would build an even better car for 2012. Good enough that Toto Wolff, now Mercedes team chief, believed that Kubica would have been world champion in it.

But first came February 6, 2011.

The remains of Kubica’s car are loaded onto a truck. Source: AFP

THE CRASH

Kubica was taking part in the Ronde di Andorra rally when his Skoda crashed at high speed into a church, bouncing into the end of a loose guardrail.

The metal barrier sliced its way through the car, penetrating the cockpit and partially severing Kubica’s right forearm.

Surgeons would stitch his limb back together — the bone, muscles and flesh would heal in time — but the guardrail had also severed nerves and tendons.

Kubica was left with limited mobility in his right arm, enough to bring his burgeoning F1 career to a halt.

Instead he turned his competitive urges to the World Rally Championship, where the more open cockpit confines meant his arm’s limitations posed less of an issue, but the question continued to linger. Would he — could he — return to F1 some day?

Two years ago he said he would not drive a F1 car again “unless he felt 100 per cent ready.” He is known to have spent time in both Mercedes’ and Renault’s simulators.

In April this year he tried his hand at single-seaters for the first time since his crash, testing a GP3 car in Italy and a Formula E car at Donington Park.

“What was significant about these earlier tests was they allowed him to assess whether the limited articulation of his injured right arm still prevented him from being able to steer within the confines of a single-seater’s cockpit,” Mark Hughes wrote for Motorsport.

“The Franciacorta circuit was chosen for the fact that it features two tight hairpins that require a lot of steering lock.

“Kubica was reportedly delighted to find that the arm no longer presented a problem, that it was now possible for it to function without being held out at an angle that had previously prevented it from fitting into such an enclosed space.”

In Kubica’s own words: “On the physical front and preparing many aspects you can improve, but my limits are at a good point.”

Robert Kubica, Renault F1 test, Valencia 2017. Pic: Renault Sport F1 Source: Supplied

THE RETURN?

At the moment, only Kubica, Renault test and reserve driver Sergey Sirotkin, who also logged laps during the day, and the team of mechanics and engineers on the ground know exactly how he fared in his first F1 test in over six years.

The fact that he logged 115 laps of Valencia — a total distance of 460 kilometres, more than a grand prix distance and more than he did in a single day at the 2011 Valencia test — is a positive sign for both his physical condition and his physical ability behind the wheel.

No official times have been released from the test, but a journalist for L’Equipe suggested some impressive — albeit unconfirmed — stats.

“For his return to F1, a hundred laps, a race simulation, and a better lap time than Sirotkin,” Frederic Ferret tweeted.

“No one-armed Kubica ...”

Robert Kubica, Renault F1 test, Valencia 2017. Pic: Renault Sport F1 Source: Supplied

Whether Kubica is capable of a fulltime comeback, and whether his formidable speed and talent would return, is still unknown.

Time is on his side. Kubica is still just 32 years old, slightly older than either Hamilton or Vettel but still a few years younger than Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen — who, let’s not forget, just qualified on pole for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Even if nothing further comes from the F1 test, Kubica’s return from nearly losing his right hand to drive a F1 car at competitive speeds is nothing short of astounding.

But Kubica is nothing less than a racer. If the test confirms to both he and Renault that the limitations of his arm will no longer stop him from racing at world championship level, this won’t be the last we see him in a F1 car.