Wherever Robert goes, he is followed by his legion of fans 

BMW Sauber F1 Team
Driver Profile: Robert Kubica

Desert island dream.

You can always tell a great deal about a person’s character when they tell you the three things they would take with them to a desert island. Therefore, when Robert Kubica’s answer to this question was a car, tyres and fuel, it explained why for the time being motor racing is his life.

From the moment he appeared in a Formula One paddock as the BMW Sauber F1 Team reserve and test driver for the 2006 season, the Pole was an instant success with the media. He was a breath of fresh air. His answers to questions were honest and to the point. He never dodged a difficult question with a rambling answer. If he didn’t want to answer a personal question he just said no, and if it was a thought-provoking one he would think about it and then give an answer that usually brought a smile to the journalist’s face.

When BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen offered Robert the job, he had never sat in a BMW Sauber F1 Team car. It says a lot for Robert’s reputation and Mario’s ability to spot talent that the deal was done without a test. Some people may have wondered at the wisdom of such a gamble, but it was not for very long as soon it was obvious that Poland had a new superstar on its hands, albeit a reluctant one when the limelight shone on him.

The path to Formula One was very conventional in many ways – karts, single-seaters, F1 – but in others very unconventional. For the formative years of his life from 13 onwards, Robert was on his own in Italy away from family and friends who he had grown up with in Krakow. Italian kart manufacturer CRG had seen the talent and offered Robert the chance to immerse himself in his chosen sport. The personal cost of being on his own in a country where he had to learn the language, and come to terms with the culture at such an early age, would have daunted many a worldly-wise youngster, but not the lad from Poland.

He adopted Italy and Italy adopted him. Now when he is agitated he has all the characteristics of an Italian and often lets his hands do the talking.
 

Personable professional.
Robert has a manager who comes to all the races with him, but their relationship is obviously personal as well as professional. Apart from Daniele Morelli, who noticed Robert’s raw talent at an early age, Robert does not come with a posse of people. However, that doesn’t mean he likes to be alone. Step into the BMW Sauber F1 Team motorhome and the first person you will find is Robert. He will be there ready for a chat and a laugh.

However, on many occasions anyone wishing to ask him a question or just say hello doesn’t even have to go through the door. Robert loves standing in front of the motor-home chatting to his mates in the paddock. He has amassed an array of friends and admirers since he started racing, and those of them working up and down the F1 paddock in a variety of teams can often be found shooting the breeze with him.

While Robert does not come from a motor racing family, his father Artur did enjoy the sport, so was happy to buy his four-year-old a car. “It was a joint Christmas and birthday present. It had a four-stroke engine, no horsepower, but still could do about 40 kilometres an hour. I spent half a day in it and didn’t want to get out of it to go home,” he explains.

However, the young Robert had to be patient before his first race: “I drove this car round the parking lots and then two and a half years later I got a real go-kart. I spent hours practising as I had to wait until I was ten to get a licence and start racing. Once I had my tenth birthday on 7th December 1994 there was no stopping me.”

Fledgling flies the nest.
After three years of karting in Poland it was obvious he had outgrown his surroundings. If he was to progress, the only course of action was to leave his homeland. And so his father took him to Italy to race. As Robert explains, everything went well from the word go: “I was lucky because we were working with one of the best mechanics in Poland and so even in Italy in my first race I was on pole and finished second.”

His next move is well documented – at 13 he packed his bag and went to live in a foreign country, and it was while in Italy that he met the people who were to prove so crucial as he vaulted up the motor sport career ladder. It says something for Robert’s strength of character that, when asked if he missed his family when he was in Italy, he said: “I would like to say no, but I know in the whole of life you cannot have everything. For my family it was not possible for them to come to Italy and live, so whatever happened was always a compromise. I was doing what I really enjoyed so I was not thinking very much about anything else.”

The sacrifice proved worthwhile as he added a string of Italian kart championship titles to the six he had won in Poland. By the time he was ready for the move to single-seaters in 2001, he had the help and support of Daniele Morelli. With Daniele to guide him, his progress was rapid through Formula Renault 2000, Formula 3 Euro Series and then World Series by Renault, where he won not only the title in 2005 but the chance to test the Renault F1 car.

In December 2005 Robert received his second joint birthday and Christmas present that was to prove life-changing – a contract with the BMW Sauber F1 Team. “I did the Renault F1 test and thought that this was probably the first and last time I shall drive an F1 car so I should treat it like an adventure. Then Mario Theissen called Daniele and we met. We signed the contract before Christmas so it was really quite a good birthday and Christmas gift. Normally December is not an easy time. I would be on the phone to Daniele talking about money and waiting for teams to make decisions. This year was very different!”

Robert threw himself into the task ahead and the team was more than happy to let its rookie tester take on a very important role. By the end of the 2006 season he had done over 25,000 kilometres of testing and replaced Jacques Villeneuve for the last six races of the year, with the podium in Monza being the high point.

Miracle man.
On lap 27 of the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix he was to be involved in one of the most spectacular crashes in recent years, with everyone in the F1 paddock as well as the worldwide television viewers holding their collective breath. His car had clipped the back of the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, reared into the air and somersaulted down the Montreal track, hitting barriers and shedding pieces of bodywork. It seemed impossible that anyone could emerge from the wreck without serious injuries.

However, someone was watching over Robert on that day. The regulations the FIA had brought into force proved that an F1 car can stand massive g-forces and the HANS system made sure that the driver’s head was held firm. Apart from a sprained ankle, he had suffered no injures.

In that brief span of time Robert Kubica went from being the only Pole in Formula One to one of the most famous drivers in the sport. Robert is very tough on himself and admitted his personal year had been a disappointment, partly because he lost points due to mechanical gremlins. However, he is not a person to dwell on what could have been.

As he was leaving the Sao Paulo track after the last race of the season, in which he finished fifth, he was already looking to 2008. He couldn’t wait to get back into his car to begin his assault on the new season that, as far as he was concerned, started there and then.

More:
BMW Sauber F1 Team Driver Profile - Nick Heidfeld

Related
F1 Feature: What's in store for the 2008 F1 Season - Part 2   
F1 Feature: What's in store for the 2008 F1 Season - Part 1   
2008 FIA Formula One World Championship - Season Calendar   

Factbox: Robert Kubica

Formula One Statistics Pre-2008: Robert Kubica