The Polish, together with Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson, won the 24 hours of Le Mans at the wheel of the Ferrari 499p number 83 of the AF Corse team. From Go-Kart to podiums in Formula 1, to the accident in a rally and success in the WEC: here are all the stages of his career
Twice, in 2009after the accident of Felipe Massaand in 2012 (the contract for that season had already been signed in the previous months) touched the seat of the Ferrari for the World Championship of Formula 1While Sunday 15 June 2025, Robert Kubica the 93rd edition of the 24 hours of Le Mans At the wheel of the car Hypercar 499p number 83 of the team AF Corse. A victory (twelve months ago only a penalty and a problem with the hybrid power unit exhilarated it from the struggle for the podium) shared with Yifei Yeofficial pilot of the Cavallino, and with Phil Hansonwhich enters the great sports companies of the Anclectic, but unfortunate, Polish pilot. And if, on the one hand, for the Maranello team it is the third consecutive success on the Circuit de la Sarthe, on the other the driver of Krakow signed his second seal in the queen class of the championship (last September he won the Lone Star Le Mans Disputed on the Circuit of the Americas) precisely in what is considered the most famous duration in the world, for a history (linked to double wire) of passion and redemption that goes far beyond the values of sport. Let’s go back to retrace the main stages, from F1 to the accident (and triumphs) in rallyuntil the return to the track with the Williams and debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), of this great champion.
Kubica and the beginning: from the karts to F1
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From the go-karts used in the Polish championship to the Formula 1 single-seater in just a decade. Robert Kubica He started taking his first steps in a national series conquered, at the age of ten, three consecutive times. His ascent in the world of international motorsport takes a decidedly different turn when his father decides to enroll it in the Italian Kart championship. In addition to conquering the title on the debut, in 1998 (For the first time a foreign pilot wrote his name in the gold register of the event), the Polish pilot managed to repeat himself also in a subsequent season characterized by participation (and victory) in the German championship. In 2000, in what was his last season on the karts, he found on his way (among others) Lewis Hamilton And Nico Rosberg. The fourth place overall in the European championship and in the World Cup projects it on one Formula Renault with which he closes in second place the 2002 season. After winning the World Series by Renault 2000 Disputed on the Interlagos circuit, in Brazil, in 2003 a serious road accident in Poland ruined his first season in the F3 Euro Series. To get to the Formula 1 We must wait until the test carried out at the end of 2005 on the Barcelona circuit behind the wheel of a Renault of F1. And even if the French house decided not to hire it for an official commitment, it was Mario Theissenboss of the BMW team of Formula 1, to propose a contract as a tester of the BMW Sauber for the 2006 season.
F1 with Sauber, the dramatic accident in Canada and Renault
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Four seasons played under Team’s tents BMW Sauberwith the joy of a podium already in the debut year (in Monza in 2006) and the first career success in the World Championship of Formula 1. In Canada, in what has remained his best season ever in the world championship (in 2008 he classified himself in fourth place), Kubic he managed to keep the twin single -seater behind Nick Heidfeld and the Red Bull of David Coulthardfor a success of the past. A unicum in the career of the Polish pilot, climbed on seven occasions on the podium (never in second position) of a race in the F1 World Cup. A victory that came twelve months after the dramatic accident always took place on the Montreal circuit, with the car that literally takes off and then go to impact against the safety barriers. “It is a miracle that came out unharmed,” he revealed in a recent interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport. In 2010 he moved to the team Renaultbut the season ends with two podiums and an eighth final place in the general classification.
The accident in the rally, the triumph in the WRC-2 and to Montecarlo …
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In February 2011 Kubica signed Kubica, behind his wheel of his Lotus Renaultthe best time in the F1 lend tests played on the Valencia circuit. Not even the time to get off from a Formula 1 single -seater that immediately fell inside the passenger compartment of a Skoda Fabia Super 2000 with which he could have (and wanted) to play the Montecarlo rally late January. But, then, his team did not gave the green light for participation in the Monegasque race, at the time valid for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, while from France the green light came for the least demanding Ronde of the Val Merula of Andora (held in pairs with his compatriot Jakub Gerber). As revealed by himself in more recent times, he already had a Contract signed with the Ferrari team for the following season of the F1 World Cup. But the pitfalls of this specialty played on the road mixed with the typical bad weather of the Ligurian hinterland in the tail of winter led the Czech sedan to impact a guardrail during the first special test, with the pilot of Krakow who had the worst (especially his right arm). A few months after the accident, Kubica still started again from the rally and Italy, with a test organized on the Castelletto di Branduzzo circuit, in the Pavese, and by the Ronde ball of wool of Biella, won at the wheel of a Subaru Impreza S12B WRC ’07 with Giuliano Manfredi at the notes. After a few apprenticeship race along the peninsula, in 2013 he won the first shot the WRC–2the cadet series of the reserved world championship, at the time, in the Regional Rally Car (he participated with a Citroën DS3 flanked by Maciej Baran) and to the S2000. The following year he jumped to the WRC with the team Ford m–Sportbut the sixth place in Argentina still remains its best result in the queen class. Noteworthy also the performances ai Montecarlo rally of 2014, finished prematurely due to an accident that put him out of the games while he was in full struggle for the podium, and of the following year (in a 51 kilometer test he rose, paired with Maciej Szczepaniakover 30 seconds at the first of the pursuers). The Polish pilot has never hidden his passion for this specialty. In 2014, paired with the navigator Alessandra Benedettialso won the Monza Rally Show beating in the sprint Valentino Rossi Both in the three -day race and in the final master show.
The return to F1 with Williams
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Eight years later and various tests (also carried out at the wheel of one Renault of F1), in November 2018 the team Rokit Williams Racing announced the return of Kubic in the deployment of the World Championship of Formula 1 starting from the following season. At the start with the single -seater with the number 88 on the sides, he managed to maintain his role as a pilot holding only for a year, before giving way a Nicolas Latifi. His world championship ended with a 19th place and with a point, conquered to German Grand Prixto the assets. In the following two seasons he moved under the team’s tents Alfa Romeo Racing with which, in 2021, he took part in two appointments due to positivity to Covid-19 of Kimi Raikkonen (who, almost by paradox, in 2011 replaced him at the wheel of the Renault of Formula 1 following his accident in the Rally at the Ronde della Val Merula). In the great prizes of Holland and Italy he managed to obtain only placements and no point.
The debut in the WEC and the 24 hours of Le Mans
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In 2021 Kubica managed to conquer, together with Louis delétraz And Ye Yifeithe European Le Mans Series in the class LMP2 with the Belgians of WRT team. And it is precisely from the cadet series that the new sporting life of the Polish pilot began, now among the great protagonists of the FIA World Endurance Championship. In three seasons, played respectively with the teams WRT (also in 2023) e Premaa world championship and an overall second place in the general classification have arrived. A sort of prelude to promotion in the Regina class, with the return of Ferrari In the Wac With a latest generation Hypercar car that represented the icing on the cake to go and close a circle that started (and never fully concretized) more than ten years ago. And even if, unlike Yifei Yeis not a pilot from the Cavallino, the 40 -year -old from Krakow represents a point of reference in the ranks of a Piacenza team AF Corse which has managed the third 499p (yellow color) number 83. In two seasons the crew (net of the passage of witness between Robert Shwartzman And Phil Hanson) has collected three podiums, including two successes, and a ninth place in the general classification. The victory at the 24 hours of Le Mans It represents a flagship in the career of Robert Kubica, an eclectic pilot protagonist in Formula 1, in the rally and in various disciplines on the track, up to the endurance world championship. And who knows that the conquest of the world title in this discipline cannot become a concrete goal, perhaps before devoting itself to a new challenge.
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