Robert Kubica is Poland’s only Formula One driver in the history of the sport. Since he entered the highest level of motor racing in 2006 he has driven for BMW Sauber, but will join Renault for 2010. Kubica has finished on the pdoium nine times in his F1 career and has finished 1st once, in the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.
Before F1
Some of Kubica’s earliest experiences of competitive motor racing came when he entered the Polish Karting Championship at the age of 10, where he went on to win 6 titles in the space of 3 years. After this he transferred to the more challenging International Italian Junior Karting Championship, where, in 1998, he became the first foreigner to win.
The following year he defended this title, while winning the Junior Monaco Kart Cup which takes place on parts of the F1 Grand Prix track. The next year he did the same, while winning other trophies (including the Margutti Trophy) and finishing fourth in both the European and World Championships.
Early Professional Career
Kubica joined the dangerous realm of professional racing in 2000, and he was soon thrown in at the deep end. A road accident left him with a broken arm, delaying his Formula Three debut until the race at Norisring, where, with a plastic brace and 18 titanium bolts holding his arm in place, Kubica won the race. Between 2000 and 2005 he raced in the Formula Renault, Formula Three Championships and the World Series by Renault championship which he won to earn him Formula One tests with Renault.
Formula One Debut
Kubica’s debut season was in 2006, when he became BMW Sauber’s Formula One test driver. After the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring Jacques Villeneuve complained of headaches following a crash which would make the race his last, and Kubica was promoted to second driver. In his Grand Prix debut he qualified ninth, which was no worse than his team had already been doing, and even beat his teammate Nick Heidfeld, although he was later disqualified for driving an underweight car.
After being confirmed as BMW’s replacement for Villeneuve, he went on to finish third in his third race, the Italian Grand Prix. This made him the first Polish driver to appear on a Formula One podium. Fittingly, this made him the first F1 driver to finish on the podium in his first three races since Villeneuve in 1996. Kubica went on to finish consistently in the middle of the pack for the rest of the season, taking six points in total for his team.
2007
Kubica and BMW Sauber had a good season in 2007, with both Heidfeld and Kubica finishing consistently in point-scoring positions. He finished sixth in the end, despite missing one race, the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis, due to a crash a week earlier at the Canadian Grand Prix. Approaching the hairpin on lap 27 his car made contact with Jarno Trulli’s Toyota and lifted after hitting a lump in the grass. With its nose in the air, the car rolled across the track, crashing into a wall at a speed of 186 mph and coming to rest on its side. To this day Trulli and Kubica still appear to have frosty relations, which can be seen in their reactions to any incidents involving the two drivers.
2008
The season began strongly for BMW and Kubica. He achieved his, and his team’s, first pole at Bahrain and came second in both Malaysia and the prestigious Monaco. His first and only win to date, however, came on 8 June at, rather fittingly, the Canadian Grand Prix. Race leader and eventual 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, apparently not spotting the red light on his way out of the pit lane, hit the back of main rival Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and took out both cars, leaving the way open for Kubica and Heidfeld to finish first and second, a BMW Sauber first. Kubica, in a tongue-in-cheek move, thanked Hamiltion for choosing to crash into Raikonnen and not him. The win put Kubica temporarily in first place on the leaderboard. The team’s season went downhill during the second half, though Kubica finished on the podium in Japan, Valencia and Monza.
2009
The 2009 season started badly for BMW Sauber, as it did for many teams, not least favourites McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari. Kubica crashed during the opening race in Australia, where BMW boss Mario Theissen boasted Kubica would have finished first ahead of eventual world champion Button had Vettel, his ex-test driver and replacement two years previously for the race at Indiana, not collided with him. Technical issues with the car continued the team’s run of bad luck, and his second place finish at the last race of the season in Brazil was his first podium of 2009 and only the team’s second.
Nearing the end of the 2009 championship, BMW Sauber announced they would not be taking part next year. This left Kubica as a free agent for 2010, when it has recently been released that he will be racing with the team that first discovered his talents, Renault F1.
 |
