Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica grew up in Kraków, karting from the age of four in a country with no motor racing tradition and almost no money for it. His father sold things to keep him racing, and as a teenager he moved to Italy alone to compete. In 2006 he became the first Polish driver in Formula One. The following year he walked away from a horrifying crash in Canada, and in 2008 he won the Canadian Grand Prix and led the world championship for a time. Ferrari were said to want him.

In February 2011, days before the season began, he entered a minor rally in Italy for fun. His car left the road and a section of guardrail speared through the cockpit, partially severing his right forearm and breaking his arm, leg and hand in many places. Surgeons worked for hours to save the arm. He spent the next year learning to use a hand that would never again move properly.

Told he would not race in Formula One again, he went rallying instead and won a world championship class title in 2013. Then he kept testing single-seaters, adapting his driving to what the arm could do. In 2019, eight years after the crash, he was back on the F1 grid with Williams and scored a point.

He moved to endurance racing, and in 2025, aged 40, he was one of the winning drivers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.