Robert Kubica.

You can always tell a great deal about a person’s character when they tell you the three things they would take with them to a desert island. Therefore, when Robert Kubica’s answer to this question was a car, tyres and fuel, it explained why for the time being motor racing is his life. From the moment he appeared in a Formula One paddock as the BMW Sauber F1 Team reserve and test driver for the 2006 season, the Pole was an instant success with the media. He was a breath of fresh air. His answers to questions were honest and to the point. He never dodged a difficult question with a rambling answer. If he didn’t want to answer a personal question he just said no, and if it was a thought-provoking one he would think about it and then give an answer that usually brought a smile to the journalist’s face.

Robert’s path to Formula One was very conventional in many ways – karts, single-seaters, F1 – but in others very unconventional. For the formative years of his life from 13 onwards, He was on his own in Italy away from family and friends who he had grown up with in Krakow. Italian kart manufacturer CRG had seen the talent and offered Robert the chance to immerse himself in his chosen sport. The personal cost of being on his own in a country where he had to learn the language, and come to terms with the culture at such an early age, would have daunted many a worldly-wise youngster, but not the lad from Poland. He adopted Italy and Italy adopted him.

Robert has a manager who comes to all the races with him. Apart from Daniele Morelli, who noticed the young-gun’s raw talent at an early age, Robert does not come with a posse of people. However, that doesn’t mean he likes to be alone. Step into the BMW Sauber F1 Team motorhome and the first person you will find is Robert. He will be there ready for a chat and a laugh. While he does not come from a motor racing family, his father Artur did enjoy the sport, so was happy to buy his four-year-old a car. “It was a joint Christmas and birthday present. It had a four-stroke engine, no horsepower, but still could do about 40 kilometres an hour. I spent half a day in it and didn’t want to get out of it to go home,” he explains. However, the young Robert had to be patient before his first race: “I drove this car round the parking lots and then two and a half years later I got a real go-kart. I spent hours practising as I had to wait until I was ten to get a licence and start racing. Once I had my tenth birthday on 7th December 1994 there was no stopping me.”

After three years of karting in Poland it was obvious he had outgrown his surroundings. If he was to progress, the only course of action was to leave his homeland. And so his father took him to Italy to race. As Robert explains, everything went well from the word go: “I was lucky because we were working with one of the best mechanics in Poland and so even in Italy in my first race I was on pole and finished second. “It says something for Robert’s strength of character that, when asked if he missed his family when he was in Italy, he said: “I would like to say no, but I know in the whole of life you cannot have everything. For my family it was not possible for them to come to Italy and live, so whatever happened was always a compromise. I was doing what I really enjoyed so I was not thinking very much about anything else.”

By the time he was ready for the move to single-seaters in 2001, he had the help and support of Daniele Morelli. With Daniele to guide him, his progress was rapid through Formula Renault 2000, Formula 3 Euro Series and then World Series by Renault, where he won not only the title in 2005 but the chance to test the Renault F1 car. In December 2005 Robert received his second joint birthday and Christmas present that was to prove life-changing – a contract with the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Robert threw himself into the task ahead and the team was more than happy to let its rookie tester take on a very important role. By the end of the 2006 season he had done over 25,000 kilometres of testing and replaced Jacques Villeneuve for the last six races of the year, with the podium in Monza being the high point.

On lap 27 of the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix he was to be involved in one of the most spectacular crashes in recent years, with everyone in the F1 paddock as well as the worldwide television viewers holding their collective breath. His car had clipped the back of the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, reared into the air and somersaulted down the Montreal track, hitting barriers and shedding pieces of bodywork. It seemed impossible that anyone could emerge from the wreck without serious injuries. However, someone was watching over Robert on that day. The regulations the FIA had brought into force proved that an F1 car can stand massive g-forces and the HANS system made sure that the driver’s head was held firm. Apart from a sprained ankle, he had suffered no injures.

As he was leaving the Sao Paulo track after the last race of the season, in which he finished fifth, Robert was already looking to 2008. He couldn’t wait to get back into his car to begin his assault on the new season that, as far as he was concerned, started there and then.