Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica

Name: Robert Kubica

Nationality: Poland

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Robert Kubica started his adventure with cars at the age of four when he was presented with a small off-road vehicle to drive around at his parents' home.

He then graduated to karts and eventually won six Polish Championship titles.

In 1998 Kubica won the Italian Karting Championship - the first foreigner in the history of the series to achieve such a feat - and also scored second place in European Championship.

At the end of 1999 he tested a Formula Renault 2000 car for the first time and during his first season in cars he scored his first pole position - his promise leading to an invitation from Renault to join their driver development scheme.

In 2002 Kubica won four races and scored second place in Italian Formula Renault 2000.

However, his move to the Formula 3 Euroseries was delayed when he suffered a severely broken right arm when involved in a road accident as a passenger.

Making a debut at the Norisring late in 2003 - and driving with a plastic brace and 18 titanium bolts in his right arm - Robert promptly won his first Formula 3 race in front of 126,000 spectators.

He ended his first, shortened season in 12th place but moved up to seventh place overall in 2004.

In November of that year he scored pole position in the Macau F3 Grand Prix, eventually finishing second and breaking the lap record.

A strong performance during a test with the Epsilon Euskadi team saw Kubica sign up for the World Series by Renault in 2005.

In his first race in the new category, at Zolder, Robert scored third place, showing no respect for older and more experienced rivals.

He won a total of four races and in Estoril, three races before the end of the season, was crowned Champion.

That success earned him a test with the Renault F1 Team in Barcelona and his lap times made such a big impression that three weeks later Kubica was signed by BMW Sauber as their official Friday test driver.

However, Kubica found himself replacing Jacques Villeneuve in a race seat mid-way through the 2006 season.

He immediately looked comfortable and marked himself out as a star of the future by finishing third in the Italian Grand Prix - only his third F1 race.

And although he wasn't able to score points in the remaining three races of the season, largely through pushing too hard, BMW opted to keep him on for 2007.

The young Pole made a steady start to his first full season in F1, scoring points in three of the opening five races.

However, disaster almost struck at the Canadian GP when he suffered a horrific high-speed accident, amazingly coming away with nothing more than a sprained ankle and concussion.

Forced to miss the following week's United States GP, he nevertheless made his return in France.

And eight subsequent points finishes in the remaining 11 races saw Kubica finish the Championship in sixth place behind team-mate Nick Heidfeld.

The 2008 season proved to be a highly successful one for Kubica and the team, who both achieved their first pole position in Bahrain before scoring a breakthrough victory in Montreal.

The win also placed Robert atop the drivers' standings for a brief time and he remained in the hunt right up until the penultimate race of the Championship

However, a slight slump in form in the latter few races meant he was fourth by the time the season ended in Brazil.

BMW are already talking about launching a World Championship challenge in 2009 and, based on last season's results, Kubica can be expected to lead the way.