Timo Glock has admitted that he would now think twice about getting in a rally car in the wake of friend Robert Kubica's accident last weekend.
The Marussia Virgin Racing driver regularly spends time with Kubica on grands prix weekend, with the pair joining other drivers in evening poker games. After expressing his sadness about the injuries Kubica suffered in his crash on the Ronde di Andorra, Glock said that the incident will make him more cautious about what he gets up to outside of racing cars.
"It's difficult to stop racing drivers from jumping in other cars, because driving is fascinating," said Glock. "If you have the chance to sit one time in a car, you want to have it. I can understand why he did it – it's good fun and it's good to drive other cars and keep your skills alive over the winter.
"But if I would now have a chance to do a rally, I would think about it twice. To stay fit I have to do a two-hour bike tour, and if there's someone on the street who runs you over you are in the same situation. This is part of our job. Sometimes you are just unlucky in a situation."
Glock's teammate Jerome D'Ambrosio, who has known Kubica since his karting days, reckoned that doing rallying was what made Kubica the man he was.
"I've known Robert for more than half of our lives, since I was 11, and I'm 25 now," he said. "Robert lives for the racing. You can see it in the paddock – he's one of the natural guys and he doesn't care much about all the other things F1 can bring. He just wants to get behind the wheel. If he's not in an F1 car he wants to be behind the wheel of a rally car; if not a rally car then a go-kart – he lives for all that.
"I just really hope for him that everything is going to be OK and he's going to be back soon. You know motor racing is dangerous and if you don't accept that, then you're no longer a racing driver. [Felipe] Massa had his accident that reminded us all that it can be dangerous, but I've always been conscious of that and accepted that. It's not like I just realized it's dangerous."