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Robert Kubica’s top 5 Formula One moments
It’s official! Robert Kubica will be making a sensational return to F1 in 2019, completing one of the most remarkable comebacks in sporting history. Check out the Polish driver's 5 finest F1 moments.
On 6 February 2011 Robert Kubica was minutes away from death. The Renault Formula One driver was competing in the Ronde di Andorra rally when his Skoda Fabia hit a metal guardrail which penetrated the car’s cockpit and partially severed his right arm. Kubica also suffered multiple compound fractures and underwent a seven hour operation to save his damaged limb.
Fast forward to November 2018 and the Polish Grand Prix winner will be making a remarkable return to F1 with the Williams team for the 2019 season alongside British driver George Russell.
Check out the five highlights of Kubica’s interrupted F1 career so far, a list the Polish driver will be looking to add to as he returns to the pinnacle of motorsport.
1. First Polish driver in the history of F1
Robert Kubica drove for Sauber from 2006-2009
© BMW
Before Robert Kubica made his F1 debut at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix replacing injured teammate Jacques Villeneuve, Poland as a nation was hardly synonymous with the world of top level motorsports.
That all changed when Kubica was thrust from being BMW Sauber’s test driver to being their Grand Prix driver and did a superb job in his debut, out-qualifying more experienced teammate Nick Heidfeld and finishing seventh only to be disqualified for having an underweight car.
Soon after the Hungarian race Villeneuve quit the team, meaning Kubica’s promotion to a full-time F1 driver had come early, and he competed in the remaining five races of the 2006 F1 season firmly stamping the red and white Polish flag into the F1 history books.
2. First podium: 2006 Italian Grand Prix
The 2006 Italian Grand Prix at Monza was just Kubica’s third Grand Prix start and the Polish rookie proved that he could match it with the biggest and best names in F1.
Kubica was consistent the whole weekend, the long straights of the Monza circuit proving well suited to the powerful BMW engine, and he planted his car an impressive sixth on the grid for the race.
On race day Kubica drove superbly and maturely to come home third behind the winner Michael Schumacher and second placed Kimi Räikkönen, and as a Ferrari win on home soil and Schumacher’s post-race retirement announcement grabbed the headlines, Kubica was quietly confirming his F1 pedigree.
3. First pole: 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix
Despite retiring from the opening round of the 2008 F1 season in Australia, Kubica finished second in Malaysia, confirming the BMW Sauber F1.08 was a front-running car and he was a front-running driver.
In the third race of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix Kubica would take a landmark pole position just ahead of Felipe Massa in the Ferrari and go on to claim a second podium of the season and the third of his short career.
4. First F1 victory: Canada 2008
Kubica winning in Canada in 2008
© Sauber Motorsport AG
One year before Kubica claimed his first, and so far only Grand Prix victory, he was involved in one of the most spectacular accidents in recent F1 history when his car crashed at over 180mph on lap 26 of the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix.
He returned to the same circuit twelve months after escaping this huge shut with concussion and a sprained ankle, qualified second, and went on to win a dramatic race to lead home a BMW Sauber one-two ahead of teammate Nick Heidfeld.
Prior to this race, Kubica had scored a solid second place at the Monaco Grand Prix and the victory in Canada put Kubica into the lead of the F1 driver’s championship. The Polish driver would revisit the podium three more times in 2008 en route to fourth in the championship.
5. Podium finish in Australia 2010: second race for Renault
After such a dazzling 2008 campaign with BMW Sauber, Kubica endured a disappointing F1 campaign the following year, the highlight being a solitary second place towards the end of the year at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Kubica chases down Mark Webber in Melbourne
© Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
Kubica moved to the Renault F1 team for the 2010 campaign, and following a disappointing 11th place in his debut for the team at the Bahrain Grand Prix, he bounced back with a superb result at the Australian Grand Prix despite qualifying down in ninth place.
In wet conditions Kubica was up to fourth by the end of the first lap and delivered a calm and mature performance to fend off an intense challenge from Lewis Hamilton to come home in second place behind eventual winner Jenson Button.
Kubica's return to the F1 grid
Before his life changing accident in 2011 many fans, pundits and rivals saw Kubica as possessing the necessary speed and brains to be a future F1 World Champion.
Since his accident Kubica has made incredible progress and competed in the World Rally Championship between 2012 and 2016 and stepped back in to an F1 car for the first time in June 2017 when he undertook the first of a series of tests with the Renault team. Kubica has proved that can still handle a thoroughbred F1 machine and is back at the sharp end with the Williams team.
Whatever happens in 2019, Kubica’s return to F1 competes one of the most unlikely comebacks not just in motor racing, but in the whole of sport.
