WRT trio Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Rui Andrade have been topped the WEC’s last-ever LMP2 champions with victory in Saturday’s Bahrain finale, beating Inter Europol’s Albert Costa, Fabio Scherer and Jakub Smiechowski by an astonishing 59 factors within the ultimate tally.
Kubica feels his WEC title success goes a good distance in making up for his near-miss at Le Mans in 2021 when a freak throttle sensor failure on the final lap denied him a win on his and WRT’s first go to to La Sarthe.
The Polish driver has since notched up two second-place finishes within the French endurance traditional, however a victory continues to elude him.
“I did not win many championships, to be sincere, in my life,” Kubica advised Autosport. “Sure, just a few of them however each season each championship is totally different. This feels particular.
“It is a disgrace for Le Mans, I’ve to confess it. Ending P2 second yr in a row and in 2021 shedding the win on the final lap.
“However anyway this world championship brings again some smile. I believe for certain we could not find yourself in a greater means.”
Such was the consistency of the #41 WRT crew that they completed all however one race of the yr on the rostrum, and their first-place end result within the Bahrain 8 Hours marked their third victory in seven makes an attempt.
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Images
#41 Group WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson: Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz
Whereas hailing WRT for a formidable marketing campaign, Kubica stated his title success exhibits he may be aggressive in endurance racing, having made a swap to this type of motorsport after an unsuccessful return to Components 1 in 2019.
Kubica had already received the European Le Mans Collection title in 2021 additionally with WRT, though his WEC success marks his first world championship title in any self-discipline of motorsport since he triumphed within the WRC2 class in 2013 whereas driving a Citroen.
“For certain it is a terrific achievement,” he stated. “If you at all times begin a brand new chapter and this was me coming to endurance racing, first in ELMS after which in WEC, the aim was at all times to carry out.
“Each season we begin, I am 38, I do know I may be aggressive. I do know what I have to carry out and this yr it exhibits that along with my team-mates in WRT that we have now all of the elements to carry out.
“I believe we did an excellent job, six consecutive podiums out of seven races, very constant. We did have higher and worse days however we by no means gave up and it highlights the standard of labor we have now executed.“
Kubica, Deletraz and Andrade managed to finish the Bahrain race with one much less pitstop than most of their rivals, which allowed them to make their means up the pack after a disappointing qualifying session left them tenth within the LMP2 class.
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The 38-year-old revealed that WRT had dedicated to the technique early on, which meant he may handle his gas and tyre consumption accordingly.
“I’ve to say we did not have clean free practices however we turned it round,” he defined.
Photograph by: Shameem Fahath
#41 Group WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson: Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz
“Once we noticed through the race that the automobile dealing with was as we anticipated we knew we will make an excellent tempo.
“We began the race with a distinct technique to the others. We did set-up for the automobile and it paid off.
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“Truthfully I used to be a bit shocked that not many vehicles in any respect [used our strategy] at first of the race. Jota diverted to our technique, however all of the others form of ignored it.
“I am shocked as a result of Bahrain is at all times about managing and this was the proper mixture of pace, managing and gas saving.
“So, all of it labored out and we scored one other win, third win, second one within the row, so nice.”