Robert Józef Kubica ( kyoo-BIT-sə; Polish: [ˈrɔbɛrt kuˈbit͡sa] ; 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 2006 and 2010, and again in 2019 and 2021, and the WRC from 2013 to 2016. 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 2010 and was set to remain with the team in 2011.
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 2012 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 2019, 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 2021.
Kubica entered LMP2 in 2021, winning the European Le Mans Series twice and the FIA World Endurance Championship once for Team WRT. 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 2025 alongside Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye, having spent 10 hours in the car.
When he was four years old, Kubica saw a small off-road vehicle, powered by a 4 bhp (3.0 kW) 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.
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.
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.
In 2005, Kubica won the World Series by Renault championship with the Epsilon Euskadi team, earning Formula One tests with Renault.
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.
2006–2007: First Polish F1 driver and injury
In 2006, Kubica became the official reserve driver for the BMW Sauber Formula One team. 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 2007. In August 2006, Kubica's teammate, Jacques Villeneuve, complained about headaches after his accident during the German Grand Prix; 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 Hungarian Grand Prix. 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. Villeneuve decided to leave the BMW Sauber team soon after the race, and Kubica's position in the team for the remainder of the season was confirmed by BMW.
Kubica had a disappointing race at the Turkish Grand Prix, 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 Italian Grand Prix, 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 1997 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 2007 season, finishing consistently in point scoring positions. At the Canadian Grand Prix 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 300.13 km/h (186.49 mph), 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.