And this is true short story of Robert Kubica career.
There is a photograph, taken in 2000, of three teenagers on the podium of a European championship kart race. All three are now Formula One drivers. To the right is a smiling Nico Rosberg, to the left a rueful-looking Lewis Hamilton and the boy in the middle – the one holding the winner’s trophy – is Robert Kubica.
The story of how Kubica became the first driver from Poland to make it into F1 and the first from any country in the former Soviet bloc to win a grand prix, is remarkable. He had success early on, winning the Polish kart championship six times. He then persuaded his father Artur to let him measure himself against the best in the world in Italy, the beating heart of the kart world.
After four races at his father’s expense, he was signed by leading kart maker CRG as a race and test driver and he has been a salaried driver ever since. It was a dream come true for the youngster, but with money tight in the travel budget, it had one big downside.
“After every race I was going back home with my father by car to Poland,” recalls Kubica. “I used to go everywhere in the car back then. One trip was from Poland to Pescara for two days testing, then on by car to Braga in Portugal for three days testing and then from Braga back to Poland. It was very tiring and we lost a lot of days to travelling. That is why I don’t like travelling by car any more.
“I didn’t know F1 then – my world was karting – and I felt like a child with the toy of his dreams. CRG was giving me the opportunity to do what I loved: race and test karts. I didn’t have to think of anything else. There was no financial burden because it was all paid for. Not many 14-year-olds were driving for free.
“In the end I wanted to become someone in karting; I was not really interested in single-seaters. F1 was the highest category but to be honest, until I was 16 years old, I didn’t think of it.”
After that first season of heavy commuting, Kubica pushed to be allowed to stay in Italy and moved in with the family of his boss at CRG. He quickly learned the language and the Italian karting scene, and in 1998 became the first non-Italian to win the national championship.
But Kubica had to make significant sacrifices in pursuit of his goal. “He had to go and live in Italy, alone, in the factory of the team,” says his manager Daniele Morelli. “His family was back in Poland. He was 14. He had left school, bet everything on the sport. He lost his youth in many ways. He was alone with little money and had to learn the language from scratch. He won the Monaco kart cup twice, which helped him to survive. He was very committed, not to being an F1 driver, but to be the best at karting at that stage.”
Kubica’s experience is a sharp contrast to that of Hamilton, who, after an initial struggle at his father’s expense, was picked up by McLaren at the age of 13 and given the best equipment every step of the way since.
Although their stories are different, both men share qualities. Both are exceptional talents, with the feel for a racing car, for its perfect braking points, gifted with exceptional balance, which allows them to keep the car at the limit.
Kubica’s trademark is that he hardly ever makes a mistake, whereas Hamilton makes more because he pushes harder and has greater pressure on him at this stage of his career, especially as he is in the teeth of a championship battle.
At the prestigious Macau Formula Three Grand Prix in 2004, they were team-mates, Kubica making a one-off appearance in Hamilton’s team, and they were closely matched.
“He has an ability on street tracks to consider the wall as a kerb,” says Morelli. “Hamilton is the same. When they raced together in the same team at Macau, they showed Robert the computer print-out of a lap and they played a trick on him because it was actually Lewis’s lap. But because they were so similar you couldn’t tell the difference.”
Now they find themselves as opponents. Both have made winning starts, but neither is the finished article. Double world champion Fernando Alonso, argues that Kubica is the more talented driver of the two, but doesn’t yet have the equipment to challenge for the championship.
Comparisons between the way each has developed off the track since arriving in F1 are also instructive. Whereas Hamilton has become part of the celebrity circuit, dating an American pop singer, signing a multimillion pound sponsorship deal with Reebok and dining with luminaries such as Nelson Mandela, Kubica maintains a low profile.
“Give me a roof over my head, food to eat and a fast racing car, that’s all I’ve ever needed,” he says. “I don’t have famous friends. I’m not here to make money. I’m here to achieve something.
“When I don’t have fun any more, I will go and do something else. I don’t need boats and private jets or big houses. When I was 16, I lived in the workshop, like many others, so I don’t need five-star hotels. If there is a five star 20km from the track and a three star 2km from the track, I’ll stay in the three star.”
Kubica’s big break came with a test for Renault in 2005, part of his prize for winning the Renault-backed World Series, a lower level racing competition. After 40 laps, he was faster than Renault’s test driver, Franck Montagny.
With Renault wanting more, Morelli quickly used Kubica’s test result as a calling card with Peter Sauber, who was in the process of selling a majority stake in his eponymous F1 team to BMW. Kubica was hired as the BMW-Sauber test driver without even having to test their car, an unprecedented move by a team.
Midway through the 2006 season, the team dropped former world champion Jacques Villeneuve and put Kubica in his race seat. He scored a podium in his third race.
Kubica’s first F1 victory came at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, where he steered through the chaos to lead home his BMW Sauber team-mate Nick Heidfeld.
Now, with barely two seasons of racing under his belt, Kubica is one of the hottest names in the sport, in demand from Ferrari, Honda and BMW. His initial contract with BMW ends this season and he is beginning to realise just what a hot property he is.
“The team has done a good job,” he says. “We have grown up together, improving our performance, cutting out mistakes. For this year, I hope we will keep fighting, keep improving, because at the start of the season it was easier to keep in front of McLaren and Ferrari than the last few races.”
So the goal is to fight for the championship in 2009? “That’s the team’s goal, but I don’t know where I will be in 2009.”
Kubica is on Ferrari’s radar and is known to be the preferred choice of some of the most influential executives in the Fiat/Ferrari structure. The world will be hearing a lot more about Robert Kubica in the years to come.
Champion,
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