Robert Józef Kubica ( ; born 7 December 1984) is a Polish racing and rally driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for AF Corse. He competed in Formula One between and , and again in and , and the WRC from to . He won the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix with BMW Sauber, and remains the only Polish driver to compete in Formula One. In endurance racing, Kubica won the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans for AF Corse, as well as three LMP2 titles across WEC and ELMS.
Kubica graduated from junior formulae after winning the 2005 Formula Renault 3.5 Series. He was promoted to Formula One mid-2006, and drove for BMW Sauber until 2009. Kubica took his only F1 victory at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix — also the only win for Sauber — and led the championship briefly, before finishing fourth overall, his best career position. He drove for Renault in and was set to remain with the team in .
On 6 February 2011, Kubica was seriously injured in a crash at the Ronde di Andora rally, in which he suffered partial amputation to his forearm, and fractures on his right elbow, shoulder, and leg. He told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport in a bedside interview that he could feel the fingers in his right hand and was determined to make a swift return to Formula One in 2011. After rehabilitation, he said that a return to F1 would be "nearly impossible". Several years later, Kubica revealed that he had signed a pre-contract with Ferrari for the season, a move that was eventually ruled out by his crash injuries.
Kubica returned to rallying in September 2012, winning a minor rally in Italy. He was named one of "The Men of the Year 2012" by Top Gear magazine for his return to auto racing. In 2013, he drove for Citroën in the European and WRC2 Championships. He went on to win the inaugural WRC-2 title, and moved to the World Rally Championship full-time in 2014, driving a Ford Fiesta RS WRC prepared by M-Sport.
Kubica later took part in LMP1 tests with ByKolles, Formula One tests with Renault, and served as Williams reserve driver in 2018. He returned to the F1 grid in , scoring Williams' only points of the year. Kubica moved across to the DTM for 2020, but maintained an F1 presence as test and reserve driver for Alfa Romeo. He replaced Kimi Räikkönen at the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix in .
Kubica competed in LMP2 between 2021 and 2024, winning the European Le Mans Series twice and the FIA World Endurance Championship once. He made his Hypercar debut in 2024, driving the No. 83 Ferrari 499P for AF Corse. Kubica won the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall in alongside Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye, having spent 10 hours in the car.
Early career Karting When he was four years old, Kubica saw a small off-road vehicle, powered by a petrol engine. His father Artur bought him the car, and Kubica spent long hours driving around plastic bottles. His father later bought him a go-kart, and Kubica began racing in the Polish Karting Championship when he reached the age of ten. When he entered the championship, he won six titles in three years. After his third season, he decided to switch to a more competitive series in Italy. In 1998, he became the first foreigner to win the International Italian Junior Karting Championship.
Kubica also scored second place in the European Junior Karting Championship and won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup held on part of the Formula One Grand Prix track. A year later, he defended his title in Italy and also competed in the International German Karting Championship. He also won the Monaco Kart Cup for the second time in a row, as well as the Andrea Margutti Trophy and Elf Masters races. In 2000, his last season in karting, Kubica scored fourth places in both the European and World Championships.
Junior formulae 2000–2002: Formula Renault 2.0 Kubica started his professional career in 2000, as a test driver for a Formula Renault 2000 car. During his first professional season in Formula Renault, Kubica scored his maiden pole position and also became a member of Renault's driver development programme. In 2002, Kubica won four races and scored a second place in the Italian Formula Renault 2000. He was also seventh in the Formula Renault Eurocup. At the end of the year, he took part in a Brazilian Formula Renault 2000 race held at the Interlagos circuit. This one-off appearance resulted in a dominant win.
2003–2004: Formula Three After Formula Renault, Kubica moved to the Formula 3 Euro Series. However, his move was delayed by a road accident which left him with a broken arm, and titanium screws holding it together. At his delayed debut at Norisring, Kubica, driving with a plastic brace and eighteen titanium bolts in his arm, won the race. He finished the season in 12th place. At the end of the year, Kubica won a street race in Sardinia and came fifth in races held in Macau and Korea. He ended his second season in the Formula 3 Euro Series, spent with the factory Mercedes team, in seventh position. In November 2004, he scored pole position in the Macau F3 Grand Prix, where he broke the lap record, but finished second in the race.
2005: Formula Renault 3.5 In 2005, Kubica won the World Series by Renault championship with the Epsilon Euskadi team, earning Formula One tests with Renault.
Formula One career Test driver Kubica was due to drive Minardi's third car in Friday practice for the 2005 Japanese or Chinese GP, but he did not get the FIA Super License required to drive. Kubica made a one-off test for Renault in December 2005 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
BMW Sauber (2006–2009)
2006–2007: First Polish F1 driver and injury In , Kubica became the official reserve driver for the BMW Sauber Formula One team.BMW snaps up Kubica ITV-F1.com . Reported on site 22 December 2005, 01:33 His results in both Friday testing and private test sessions, along with the words of BMW Sauber team principal Mario Theissen, led to speculation that he would become Poland's first ever Formula One racing driver in . In August 2006, Kubica's teammate, Jacques Villeneuve, complained about headaches after his accident during the ; he was deemed unfit to race by the team, against his own belief, and Kubica was chosen by the team management to replace him at the . Kubica qualified ninth, beating his more experienced teammate Nick Heidfeld. In the race, he finished in seventh place, but was disqualified after the race for having an underweight car.Kubica disqualified, Schumacher scores Formula1.com. Retrieved Unknown Villeneuve decided to leave the BMW Sauber team soon after the race,Villeneuve parts company with BMW news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved Unknown and Kubica's position in the team for the remainder of the season was confirmed by BMW.
Kubica had a disappointing race at the , finishing in 12th place after a mistake in tyre choice. Heidfeld, who was delayed in a first-corner accident, placed behind Kubica. In his third race, the , Kubica finished in third position, and became the first Polish driver to appear on a Formula One podium, as well as the first Polish driver to lead a Grand Prix. He was the first driver since Alexander Wurz in to finish on the podium within his first three Formula One starts.
In China, he finished 13th, again after a mistake in tyre choice. After going off track at the first turn of the race, he moved from 17th position to fifth, before pitting. He was the first to change from intermediate tyres to dry tyres after the wet track started to dry. This decision was made too early: a very slow next lap in extremely wet and slippery conditions and another pit stop to change back to intermediates cost him his place in the points.
Kubica performed well during the season, finishing consistently in point scoring positions. At the Kubica had a serious crash approaching the hairpin on lap 27, in which his car made contact with Jarno Trulli's Toyota, and hit a hump in the grass which lifted the car's nose into the air and left him unable to brake or steer. The car then hit the concrete retaining wall and rolled as it came back across the track, striking the opposite wall on the outside of the hairpin and coming to rest on its side. The car was heavily damaged and Kubica's feet could be seen exposed through the destroyed nose of the car. The speed measured when his car clipped the barrier was , at a 75-degree angle, subjecting Kubica to an average deceleration of 28 g. After data from the onboard accident data recorder had been analysed it was found that he had been subjected to a peak G-force of 75 G. Under safety car conditions, Kubica was removed from the car and taken to the circuit's medical centre, where he was announced to be in "stable" condition. Shortly afterwards, his manager Daniele Morelli said Kubica was conscious and talking. It was initially reported that Kubica could have a broken leg. However, Mario Theissen later confirmed that he was not seriously injured.
Further reports from late evening on race day, directly from the hospital, confirmed that Kubica had suffered a light concussion alongside a sprained ankle. After being kept in overnight for observation, Kubica left hospital the following day. On 14 June, it was announced that as a precaution, Kubica would not race at the and would be replaced by test driver Sebastian Vettel. After missing Indianapolis, he returned for the where he qualified and finished in fourth place, receiving ITV broadcaster Martin Brundle's driver of the day award. He then went on to finish fourth again at the .
2008: Maiden win
Kubica's retention as race driver for was confirmed on 21 August 2007. Over the first half of the season, he qualified and finished strongly, including his and BMW Sauber's first pole position at the and second-place finishes at the Malaysian and Monaco Grands Prix.
On 8 June 2008 at the , Kubica achieved his first Formula 1 victory. He started second on the grid and passed race leader Lewis Hamilton in the first round of pitstops after the BMW Sauber pit crew completed a faster pitstop. On leaving the pits, Kubica and Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari halted at the pit lane exit, waiting for the red pit exit light to change. Hamilton, running immediately behind them, missed the light and crashed into Räikkönen's Ferrari, eliminating both cars from the race. Kubica rejoined the race well positioned for the eventual victory. He passed Heidfeld's sister BMW Sauber, running one refuelling stop to Kubica's two stop strategy, and gained the necessary 24 seconds over Heidfeld to ensure that he maintained the lead after his second stop 22 laps later. The BMW Saubers remained first and second to the end of the race. The win gave Kubica the lead in the Drivers' Championship.
BMW Sauber's results were weaker over the second half of the season. At the at Magny-Cours, Kubica finished 5th, reporting that this was a lost race, complaining about aerodynamic problems with the car. Kubica's strongest result of the latter part of the year was in Japan where he qualified sixth. At the start, several drivers braked too late for the first corner. Kubica took an inside line overtaking several cars and emerged in the lead. He led for 16 laps, but lost his lead to Fernando Alonso at the first round of pit stops. Kubica finished second after defending his position towards the end of the race against Räikkönen in a faster Ferrari (his fastest race lap was 0.6 seconds quicker than the Pole's) Apart from that, Kubica achieved podiums in a race in Valencia and in the rain affected race at Monza. Kubica finished the year fourth in the Drivers' Championship.
2009: Departure from BMW Sauber