Robert Kubica is having a season to forget. The Pole, the first from his country to win a grand prix, was widely tipped to embellish an already promising Formula One career after finishing joint third in the Drivers' Championship last year.
Despite a poor second half to 2008, Kubica had seven podiums to his name – the highlight his one and only victory when he took first place at the Canadian Grand Prix – and seemed destined to push on with BMW Sauber during this campaign.
Indeed, had he not collided with Sebastian Vettel in the season-opener at Melbourne, Kubica, according to BMW team principal Mario Theissen, would have passed Jenson Button to take first place and perhaps extinguished Brawn-GP's dominance before they even got the chance to flourish.
As things stand now, however, Kubica is at one end of the Championship and Button is racing away at the other. The 24-year-old has yet to register a single point in six races as his car continues to fail him and would perhaps be wise to consider this season a write-off.
But things may be about to change in Turkey this weekend. BMW will employ a new split-level diffuser at the Istanbul Park Circuit – a track designed by Hermann Tilke, the German in charge of operations at the impending Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi – and that should give their drivers a better chance to compete with the likes of Brawn and Toyota.
The two engineers, together with Williams, used the controversial double-decker diffuser at the beginning of the season, much to the chagrin of the other teams – BMW included. Protests for the design to be banned have since been rebuked by the FIA, world motorsport's governing body, and it looks like the Swiss-German manufacturers have realised the need to follow suit.
Kubica will be pleased he could finally have the standard of car his talents deserve. A consistent 2007 – his first full season in F1 – was very nearly curtailed in Canada when a 300kph crash threatened to give him more than minor concussion.
Canada would feature strongly in his short career again, where a steady race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve granted him his first victory and signalled his arrival in the sport. That was the seventh race of the 2008 season and the young driver has reached the same stage of the current campaign.
This time round it's Turkey and 58 laps of one of the most exciting tracks on the calendar. Kubica will hope his car can match his supreme skills tomorrow and make it seventh heaven yet again.
Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the daily Emirates Business 24|7 newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.