Revisited: Horror crash derails promising F1 career

Robert Kubica has fashioned a healthy motorsport career for himself, sitting as a grand prix winner and an LMP2 champion in the World Endurance Championship.

However, it seemed Kubica was destined for much more as he was once viewed as one of the hottest prospects on the F1 grid in the late 2000s.

Driving for BMW Sauber, Kubica finished fourth in the drivers' championship and was an outside contender for the title.

He spent the 2010 campaign with Renault and was set to contend the 2011 season with the French team before a horror crash changed the course of his career.

Kubica suffers dreadful rally crash

In the build-up to the 2011 F1 season, Kubica opted to compete in the Ronde di Andora rally, driving a Skoda Fabia S2000.

During the first stage, the car left the road and hit a crash barrier.

The result was devastating - Kubica suffered near-fatal injuries as he became trapped in the car for over an hour before he was able to be extracted by rescuers.

The crash barrier had become lodged in the car and impacted the Pole as it passed through.

Kubica was flown to hospital, where he underwent life-saving surgery. He lost a significant amount of blood in the crash, as well as sustaining 42 fractures and a partial amputation of his forearm.

“Honestly, I remember little of what happened because I was in a coma for so long,” he told the Gurulandia podcast last year.

“I arrived at the hospital with one and a half litres of blood, whereas a human body has six or seven. The right side of my body was all smashed up. I had 42 fractures and from my toe to my elbow I was all broken.”

Naturally, Kubica took no part in the 2011 F1 season as he underwent further surgery for his injuries.

“I am human,” he said. “For six or seven months I lost all feeling and I was not moving anything. 

“I was trying to move my finger. When I could do it, it was a feeling that only those who have experienced it can understand. The day I succeeded, I felt an absurd joy.”

F1 return but overhanging 'what if'

Kubica would eventually make his way back to F1 as he signed with Williams for the 2019 season after working the year before as a reserve driver.

The Grove-based squad struggled throughout the campaign, with rookie George Russell easily outpacing Kubica. However, the latter was able to score Williams' solitary point at a chaotic German Grand Prix.

Various FP1 sessions and two substitution outings would occur in the following years at Alfa Romeo, after which it became clear Kubica's F1 journey had ended.

The situation could have been much different for the 40-year-old, as several years after his rally crash, he revealed he had signed a deal to race for Ferrari in 2012.

The contract would have seen him partner Fernando Alonso and drive arguably his most competitive machinery to date.

"The first goal is to enter F1,” Kubica told Beyond the Grid in 2018. 

“The second is to become established in F1, so you have good value, a good reputation, which is more difficult than to enter, and third, you want to win a world championship or become a Ferrari driver. 

“I haven't won a world championship, and in the end I haven't become a Ferrari driver but I was very close.”

While Kubica was unable to carry out F1 duties for Ferrari, he linked up with the Italian organisation last year in the hypercar category in WEC.

He won the Lone Star Le Mans race around the Circuit of the Americas alongside team-mates Ye Yifei and Robert Shwartzman and will drive for the manufacturer again this year.

Overall, it was a case of what might have been, but also an inspiring story as to what can be achieved if you put your mind to it.