Dr. Francesco Lanza, director of Orthopaedics at the Santa Corona Hospital in Pietra Ligure, who carried out four operations on Robert Kubica, has spoken to Italian website 422race.com, revealing the reasons why he has been released from hospital.

Prof. Lanza, first of all let me ask you how is Robert?
"I'd say he is definitely fine, generally the situation is very satisfying."

And what about his mood?
"The mood as well. Moreover, as far as I know him, he's a person of great character and grit. I'd say definitely the mood is very high."

What made you decide about letting him leave the hospital?
"It was already scheduled, because you can't stay for six-seven months in a hospital. After two months and a half, you should expect that. He needed to start his daily life again.

"I think that nobody wants to stay in a hospital. It was an agreed decision, but a hypotesis that we have been working on for some time. We were waiting for him to move in autonomy: he was limited by some fractures on which he couldn't put any load and by the shoulder that didn't let him use sticks or crutches. When he gained his autonomy, it was clear that he wanted to go home."

So, we can say everything is going according to plans?
"Definitely. Everything went quite smoothly, luckily."

What are the plans in the next few months?
"In the next few months he will have to undergo some checks to monitor the healing of the fractures, while he will go on with physiotherapy in closet locations to his home. Then he will come back to us to check the evolution."

How often?
"More or less monthly. Then, for the rehabilitation of the hand, for example, he's still working with some physiotherapist that were curing him. With us, the rehabilitation is less specific and partly already done: at the shoulder, for example. The rest will be done by others as well, as his doctor (Dr. Ceccarelli), who has a dedicated centre for agonistic activity."

As far as his comeback in the car is concerned, what's your opinion at the moment?
"You can't do any prevision, in neither sense. I'd say the perspectives are definitely much better than when we started and this is very important. We can't commit ourselves, but we can't either dismiss anything. His functional recovery surprised us as well: if this will let him do something very specific as driving a Formula One car, it's still very difficult to say. But we have the necessary conditions, even higher than we expected. We can sincerely say we are optimistic that this person could recover a good function of the limb. With the will and the grit he has shown, we can't dismiss anything."

Did you set a deadline, together with the team and his doctors, to take a decision on that?
"Remind that the bigger injuries were at the nerves, which have long times to heal: at least six months. But we already have encouraging signs of recovery. I think a first stock of the situation has to be done six months after the accident."

So in the summer?
"Yes."

I guess that this surprising recovery was also due to the fact that he has a trained body.
"A trained body and a mental shape with a lot of grit. Even from a psychic point of view, he's very motivated. Maybe because of his job, he's used to have grit in the car and he shows it in all the aspects of life, as well."