Watching Robert Kubica drive those final laps in his yellow #83 Ferrari 499P at Le Mans felt like watching a cinematic ending scene of a movie. When the sun is setting, and the protagonist is aimlessly driving in the golden sunlight after finally getting his redemption. His mind is racing back to all his struggles and comebacks. Okay, before someone steals my million-dollar Hollywood plot, I’ll pause here.
But, Robert Kubica was that protagonist. Because even a Hollywood script could not match the incredible and scary story of his racing career.
He made his debut in the BMW Sauber F1 Team in 2006 at the Hungaroring. The 2007 Canadian GP became infamous as he had a MASSIVE crash. The impact was huge and it was not looking good. The very fact that he made it out alive was astonishing. But, it turned out that he had only suffered minor injuries. He was back in F1 after just missing a single race.
Fast-forward to 2010, he moved to Renault F1 Team. He had just topped the timings of pre-season testing in 2011. He was also heavily linked to a Ferrari move the very next year to race alongside Fernando Alonso. His F1 career was a promising one but…..
He was rallying in a Skoda Fabia in a small rally in northern Italy where he suffered another HUGE crash. The barricade completely pierced through his car and the images are so disturbing. His right arm was disfigured and it had to be amputated. His dream of driving a Rosso Corsa Formula 1 car was shattered!
He was staring at a long road of recovery and rehab. But, just after a couple of years, he returned to WRC. Arguably, rallying is as difficult as F1 as you have to make constant adjustments to your inputs based on many factors. He had limitations in his hand movements and had to adjust his grip on the steering wheel. In spite of that, he won the WRC2 title. The comeback to F1 was on.
It took 8 long years of recovery and rallying to get back to F1. The comeback was complete as he returned to F1 in a Williams in 2019. But, here comes the plot-twist. Williams had a terrible season that year having scored just a single point. Robert Kubica got relegated as a reserve driver for Alfa Romeo for the next 3 years.
That’s when the world of endurance racing opened up for him. He joined the WEC in 2021 and the rest is history. The Le Mans victory with the #83 Ferrari 499P was the ultimate motorsport redemption. He drove 43% of the entire race and driving the yellow Ferrari to the checkered flag after his roaring comeback was cinematic.
This is the story of resilience and passion. His comeback to Formula 1 after years of rallying, and then switching to hypercars in WEC is nothing short of a love story of motorsport. No Hollywood movie can match it.
Okay, maybe La La Land can.
