BMW Sauber F1 Team
Driver Profile: Robert Kubica

Poker Pole, Robert Kubica
Rarely has there been a character on the Formula One grid that can command so much attention just from being utterly himself. Standing at a height of 1.84cm, way above average compared to the rest of the field, Robert is also not your typical F1 driver. His humility and down-to-earth style comes somewhat naturally. In this feature, we profile the man from Krakow.

Playing his cards right
He can be challenging at times, although maybe that would not be how one would describe Robert Kubica if you had to sum him up in one word. “Demanding” might be better - demanding 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 truer 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.



Scusa.. 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. Kubica is not a 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.

Royal Flush or alley
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 average man. But for Robert this is all normal, as normal as a game of poker or an evening at the bowling alley, his two other passions.

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

Factbox: Robert Kubica (pronounced KOO-beet-sah)