He can be challenging at times, although maybe that’s not how you’d describe Robert Kubica if you had to sum him up in one word. “Demanding” might be better. Demanding of others, but of himself in particular. The 24-year-old Pole always wants the maximum, and preferably without delay or deviation.

Patience is not his forte. And that can sometimes be pretty challenging. They say patience is a virtue, and nowhere is this more true than in Formula One. However, for anybody who has followed Kubica’s life, it is immediately obvious why he is the way he is. If you come from a country without a trace of motor racing tradition yet still refuse to give up on your dream of driving in Formula One; if you leave home in Krakow at 13 for the unfamiliar surroundings of Italy to work in your kart team’s garage and sleep above it at night; if you are left seriously injured in a terrible car crash and fear you might lose your right arm yet, with an iron will, start preparing your comeback from your sickbed – and then win a race within a matter of weeks; if you can do all that in just a few years, you just know you can go so much further.

Italian mannerisms

It may be precisely these life events that have made Kubica the person he is: a man of few words with a modest and unaffected manner, focused and uncompromising on the track. He might have a hard shell, but concealed below the surface is a soft centre. This, however, is reserved for just a handful of people. The guard comes down slightly when you talk to him at greater length, but Kubica always maintains a degree of distance. Although the volume rises when he’s chatting away in Italian in his motorhome – complete with essential Mediterranean gesticulation – only a few people know the real man.

It’s no surprise that some find him brusque and taciturn on occasion. But that tends to be because he is concentrating fully on the job in hand and never lets himself be deflected from what he needs to do to meet his goals – sooner rather than later. “He has an unbending will to win in everything he does,” says his manager Daniele Morelli. Kubica is not a big fan of the razzmatazz of Formula One. He accepts that commitments for sponsors, partners and the media are part of the package, as are photo sessions and autograph signings. But if he had his way he would be in the car from dawn till dusk, be it testing or racing. That’s his life, that’s where he feels at peace. “He is very focused,” says BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen. “I’m just a normal guy,” counters
Kubica.

Poker and bowling

Really? Anybody who likes to spend his few days off alone or with his girlfriend at a rally or on the kart track must really be bitten by the motor sport bug. Anybody who, when asked what car he would most like to pull up in at his wedding, singles out a Formula One two-seater must be cut from a very special cloth. And anybody who chooses a car, tyres and fuel as his luxuries to take onto a desert island is wired up slightly differently from the man in the street. But for Robert this is all just normal. As normal as a game of poker or an evening at the bowling alley, two of his other passions.

Which explains how he thought nothing of putting himself on a radical diet ahead of the 2008 season. The team had told him it could have a positive effect on the balance of the car if he was a few kilos lighter. And that was all they needed to say: by the opening race of the season the already slimline Kubica had shed seven kilos. It was another example of his self-discipline and readiness to do anything in pursuit of success.

The move to Italy

Kubica does not come from a racing family, but his father Artur was a fan of the sport and bought his son a small car when he was just four. “It was a Christmas and birthday present in one. It had a four-stroke engine and not a lot of power, but somehow it did 40 km/h. I used to spend half the day in it and never wanted to get out and go home,” he recalls, but he had to bide his time before he could compete in his first race. “I would drive it around in car parks,” he says. “Two-and-a-half years later I was given a kart. I practised in it for hour after hour but had to wait until I was 10 before I could get a racing licence.” Once the necessary paperwork had arrived, on 7th December 1994, there was nothing more to hold him back. After three years of kart racing in Poland he had
outgrown the competition. To take the next step up he would have to leave his home country. His father travelled with him to Italy, where the young racer quickly hit top gear: “I was lucky because we were working with one of the best Polish mechanics,” Kubica explains. “So I was able to start my first race in Italy on pole and finish the race itself in second.” The move abroad was now inevitable. He returned home and promptly packed his bags. Once in Italy, he met the people who would play such an important role in his career, such as his manager Morelli.

Titles and triumphs

Kubica was 13 when he left Poland to live in Italy, far away from family and friends. Italian kart constructors CRG spotted his talent and gave him a chance to show what he could do. For many young teenagers, finding themselves on their own in a foreign country and having to learn a new language and culture would have been a discouraging experience. But not for this one. He took to Italy, and Italy returned the compliment.

Kubica added further success in his adopted country to the six titles he had amassed on the kart track in Poland. By the time he was ready to take the step into formula motor sport in 2001, his name was already on Morelli’s books. Progress from here was swift, as the rising star moved up through Formula Renault 2000, the Formula 3 Euro Series and the World Series by Renault. There he not only won the title, but also earned himself a Formula One test.

From test driver to race driver

However, it wasn’t Renault who signed him up as a test driver in the end, but the BMW Sauber F1 Team. The deal was concluded in December 2005, giving Kubica a very special Christmas present. “Of course it was a risk, as Robert had never driven an F1 car for us before,” admits Theissen. Happily, the gamble paid off. In 2006 Kubica embraced his latest challenge and the team was only too happy to give its rookie test driver important tasks. By the end of the season he had racked up over 25,000 kilometres of testing, and unseated Canadian former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve in the race car for the final six GPs of 2006. A podium finish at Monza in only his third F1 race was the highlight.

In 2007, however, things did not go quite as planned for Robert. And then there was his involvement in an incident at the Canadian Grand Prix which left the whole of Formula One holding its breath. On lap 27 at Montreal, Kubica was at the centre of one of the most spectacular accidents in recent F1 history. A coming together with Jarno Trulli’s Toyota ripped off his front wing, the car left the ground, smashed uncontrollably into a wall, ricocheted back onto the track, somersaulted several times – scattering debris over the track – and hit another wall. There appeared to be no way Kubica could emerge from the wreckage of the car without serious injury. However, his guardian angel was clearly watching over him and he escaped with nothing worse than a sprained ankle.

Historic victory

Returning to Montreal almost a year to the day after the crash, Kubica wrote a new chapter in motor racing history. At the 2008 Canadian GP on 8th June, Kubica recorded the BMW Sauber F1 Team’s historic maiden victory, becoming the first Polish driver ever to stand on the top step of the podium in the process.

His team-mate Nick Heidfeld crossed the line in second to wrap up a fantastic one-two for the team. Kubica, though, wanted more. After all, he left Canada on top of the World Championship standings and was in no mood to give up his lead: his sights were set on becoming World Champion in just his second full season in Formula One. Ultimately, though, the ice-cool card player from Krakow was forced to accept that McLaren and Ferrari were too strong and his was not a championship-winning car. Yet. 2009 must be a different story: that is what Robert Kubica demands – of himself and of the team.

Career highlights

1995–1997
Six-times Polish Kart Champion (Juniors)

1998
1st place Italian Kart Championship (Juniors);
2nd place European Kart Championship (Juniors);
1st place Monaco Kart Cup

1999 1st place Italian Kart Championship (Juniors);
1st place German Kart Championship (Juniors);
1st place Monaco Kart Cup
Winner of the Margutti Trophy

2000
4th place European Kart Championship (Formula A);
4th place World Kart Championship (Formula A)

2001
First races in Italian Formula Renault 2000

2002
2nd place Italian Formula Renault 2000, four wins

2003
First races in the Formula 3 Euro Series, one win;
1st place Formula 3 Masters in Sardinia

2004
7th place Formula 3 Euro Series;
2nd place Formula 3 Grand Prix Macau

2005
1st place World Series by Renault, four wins;
2nd place Formula 3 Grand Prix Macau

2006
16th place Formula One World Championship
(BMW Sauber F1 Team – 12 outings as Friday test driver, 6 races)

2007
6th place Formula One World Championship (BMW Sauber F1 Team)

2008
4th place Formula One World Championship (BMW Sauber F1 Team)