heidfeild doesnt really have much of a chance of being near the top of the table to be honest, he's a good driver just lacks the competitive edge the better drivers have.
If he was in the game for winning they would possibly swap petrov for kubica if petrov wasnt in with a good shout on the top teams. But saying that if petrov was doing well it would surprise me to see them suspend kubica's return.
I think kubica will be back, miss a few races but he'll not be out long. He knows the cabability of the team this year and if he has a chance at a title i can imagine he'll be doing everything to hurry up his recovery, all surgery has been a success so who knows!
the man had a partially severed right hand. His surgery was the easy part.
his nerves and tendons will be shortend , god knows by how much. It doesn't matter how fit or strong willed you are or how good your treatment is , they take a long time to repair if they ever can fully repair. once they are better (months and months at least) he'll then have to rebuild the strength in his forearm. This is not to mention all his other injuries,
To drive again in F1 he has to be able to use fine motor skills like you picking up a pencil and rolling it between your finger and thumb but while doing 200mph in a vibrating machine and under huge G forces..
I really doubt he'll be back in F1 before next season at best.