Planet-F1

Robert Kubica Profile

Thursday 10th August 2006

Robert Kubica started his adventure with cars very early, at the age of four and drove a small off-road vehicle around at his parents' home.

He graduated to karts and won six Polish Championship titles.

In 1998 Robert Kubica won the Italian Karting Championship as the first foreigner in the history of the series and also scored second place in European Championship.

At the end of 1999 he tested a Formula Renault 2000 car for the first time.

During his first season in cars he scored his first pole position and became member of RDD.

In 2002 he won four races and scored second place in Italian Formula Renault 2000.

His move to Formula 3 Euro Series was delayed by road accident when he was a passenger in Poland, which left him with severely broken right arm.

In his late debut at Norisring, driving with plastic brace and 18 titanium bolts in his right arm, Robert won his first Formula 3 race in front of 126 000 spectators.

He ended his first, shortened season in 12th place but ended his second season in Formula 3 Euro Series in a factory Mercedes team in an improved 7th position.

In November 2004 he scored pole position in Macau F3 Grand Prix, then broke the lap record before finishing second.

Good performance during his test with Epsilon Euskadi in World Series by Renault resulted in signing young Pole for 2005.

In his first race in new category, at Zolder, Robert scored third place, showing no respect for older and more experienced rivals.

He won a total of four races and in Estoril, three races before the end of the season, was crowned a champion.

That earned him a test with the Renault F1 Team in Barcelona and his lap times made such a big impression that three weeks later Kubica was signed by BMW Sauber as their official Friday test driver.

The Polish driver, though, soon found himself in race-seat, replacing the ousted Jacques Villeneuve and he surprised and impressed many when he finished third in the Italian Grand Prix, only his second F1 race.

And although he wasn't able to score points in the remaining three races of the season, largely through pushing too hard and going off the track, BMW opted to keep him on a race driver for the 2007 F1 season.

The young Pole made a steady start to his first full season in F1, scoring points in three of the opening five races. However, disaster almost struck at the Canadian GP when he suffered a horrific high-speed accident, coming away with nothing more than a sprained ankel.

His lack of injury was testiment to the technology used in F1 as his BMW literally broke-up around him as he hit a wall only to somersalt across the track before hitting the wall on the other side.

His ankel and slight concussion, though, kept him out of the USGP but he made his return in France, demonstrating his own mental strength.

Eight points finishes in the remaining 11 races saw Kubica finish the Championship in sixth place behind his team-mate and earned him another season at BMW.