Robert
Kubica

Robert Kubica was born in Kraków on 7 December 1984. He started karting in Poland at the age of ten, won six titles in three years and then switched to a series in Italy. In 1998 he became the first foreigner to win the International Italian Junior Karting Championship. Formula Renault 2.0 and the Formula 3 Euro Series followed. In 2005 he won the World Series by Renault with Epsilon Euskadi, which earned him Formula One tests with Renault.

In 2006 he was BMW Sauber's reserve driver, and in August he took over Jacques Villeneuve's seat for the Hungarian Grand Prix. In only his third race, at Monza, he finished third, becoming the first Polish driver on a Formula One podium. He ended 2007 sixth in the championship. He had a heavy crash at the Canadian Grand Prix and, as a precaution, sat out the next race in the United States. After that he finished fourth in both France and Britain.

In 2008 he took the first pole position of his career in Bahrain, which was also BMW Sauber's first. On 8 June he won the Canadian Grand Prix, his only Grand Prix victory, and briefly led the championship as a result. He finished the season fourth overall, his best championship position. In 2009 he scored his first points in Turkey, finished second in Brazil and ended the year 14th. BMW withdrew from Formula One after that season. In 2010 Kubica drove for Renault, finished eighth in the standings and took podiums in Australia (second), Monaco and Belgium (both third).

On 6 February 2011 he was seriously injured in a crash at the Ronde di Andora rally and missed the 2011 season with Lotus Renault GP. He returned to motorsport through rallying, won the first WRC-2 title in 2013 and moved up to the World Rally Championship from 2014. In 2017 he tested for Renault and Williams, and in 2018 he was Williams reserve driver. He raced a full season for the team in 2019, finishing tenth at the German Grand Prix for Williams' only point of that year, and ended the season 19th. In 2021 he stood in for Kimi Räikkönen at Alfa Romeo at the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix, finishing 15th and 14th. He left the team, where he had been reserve driver, after 2022.

From 2021 Kubica raced in endurance events. With WRT he won the 2021 LMP2 title in the European Le Mans Series. In LMP2 he won three titles up to 2024, two in the ELMS and one in the WEC. In 2024 he moved up to the Hypercar class with AF Corse in the Ferrari 499P. In 2025 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye, the first Polish driver to win the race outright. In Formula One he made 99 starts, with one win, 12 podiums and one pole position.

Source: Wikipedia, “Robert Kubica”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.