Glenn Freeman

He was off to a great start to life at Renault.

He already had two podiums to his name from the first six races of the year.

And in Monaco, he'd started on the front row and finished third behind the two Red Bulls.

Kubica warned people not to expect too much in Turkey, though, which he expected to be more like the Spanish Grand Prix, where he'd qualified seventh and finished eighth.

He said it was important not to become over-optimistic because he felt it would be difficult to repeat the Monaco performance on a more conventional track.

He also said that Renault had focused on maximising the strengths that it knew the car had during pre-season testing and that the team should be proud of the start it had made.

But even so, he was surprised to have started the year that well, leaving him sixth in the championship at this point, ahead of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren, among others.

Ed, what did you make of the way Kubica really just hit the ground running with Renault at the start of that 2010 season?

Well, let's talk about that a bit more because Kubica offered an insight himself into how pushy he'd been behind the scenes when he arrived at Renault.

He said as soon as he joined, he could see things that could be improved.

And he told the team straight away.

He said Renault had responded well, even if on some issues, the team maybe took a bit too long and didn't agree in the beginning.

But the things he wanted to change were changed.

He said the reason he'd been so forceful was...

was because he knew it was important to move quickly in the right direction to be ready for the start of the season.

And there were things that he suggested that the team wasn't used to doing that took a bit longer to convince them to do.

Team boss Eric Boulier said Kubica had an excellent understanding with the team and that it was a pleasure to work with a driver who is as hungry for success as we are.

Speaking about 2010 on F1's Beyond the Grid podcast, Kvitsa said that was his best 10 months of work in F1.

John, we all know how fast Robert was.

And as Ed kind of outlined there, there was always this really strong, steely, behind-the-scenes drive that he had that you maybe didn't always see in public.