PROFILE
Name:Robert Kubica
Born:December 7, 1984 in Krakow, Poland
Team:BMW Sauber
Height:6'
Weight:160 lbs.
Hobbies:Bowling, computer games, indoor karting.
2011 team Renault
2011 car #: 9
Races : 76
Championships :0
Wins: 1
Podiums: 12
Career points :273
Pole positions: 1
Fastest laps: 1
First race 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix
First win 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
Last win 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
Last race 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2010 position 8th (136 pts)
Background:
Robert won six Polish karting championships before he moved to Italy at age 13 to pursue his kart racing career in the heart of world karting. He continued winning races and championships in Italy and elsewhere, racing as a salaried driver for a kart team.
His Career Thus Far:
Robert began car racing in 2001 in Italian Formula Renault, and the following year he finished second in the same championship with four victories. The Renault F1 team signed him to its driver development program, but dropped him the following year. In 2003 he raced in the Formula 3 Euro Series and won a race. He raced in the same series the following year, and finished second in the prestigious international Macao F3 race. In 2005 he raced in the World Series by Renault, and won the championship.
Robert impressed BMW so much that it hired him as a test driver for the Formula 1 team. Testing during Friday practice at Grand Prix events, Robert impressed not only the team but also spectators and other teams as he consistently set lap times that were far superior to those of the team's regular drivers - and most of the other drivers on the track.
First Polish F1 Driver:
In the middle of the 2006 season, Mario Theissen, the BMW Sauber team director, decided to try a daring, if unorthodox test. He invited Jacques Villeneuve, one of the regular BMW drivers, to hand over his seat to Robert at an upcoming race in order for the team to see how Robert could handle a race. Villeneuve, a world champion with more than a decade of F1 experience, decided to retire rather than to cede his seat. Robert became the regular Grand Prix driver. At his first race, the Hungarian Grand Prix, he finished eighth and would have scored a point, but post race scrutineering found the car to be under weight. Even so, by his third race he finished on the podium, taking second place at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Character:
Like many of the young crop of drivers, despite his age Robert arrived in F1 with so many years of experience in professional racing that he seems mature beyond his years. Before moving from Formula Renault to the Formula 3 Euro Series, he was involved in a car crash and seriously broke his right arm. Still wearing a plastic brace and with his bone loaded with titanium bolts, he nevertheless won his first race in the series.