WRC
Kubica’s road to Le Mans ran through the WRC
Robert Kubica’s victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last weekend marked a major milestone in a career rebuilt through rallying.
The Pole drove the #83 AF Corse Ferrari to outright honours at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s headline event, becoming the first Polish driver to win at La Sarthe and adding a fresh chapter to an already unique CV. Kubica raced in Formula 1 from 2006 to 2010 - scoring a Grand Prix win before the injury that temporarily ended his single-seater career - and returned for a full season in 2019.
Kubica’s path to endurance success wasn’t typical. After a rally crash at the Ronde di Andora in 2011 left him with serious arm injuries, his single-seater career was put on hold. Rallying became the next step.
He contested a mixed programme in 2012 before committing to a full WRC2 campaign the following year. Driving a Citroën DS3 RRC, he claimed class wins in Greece, Italy, Germany, France and Spain on his way to the WRC2 title.
Kubica collected 14 stage wins during his stint in WRC
© Red Bull Content Pool
That success earned him a move to the top tier in 2014. Over the next three seasons, he made 26 starts in top-flight WRC machinery — initially in an M-Sport-run Ford Fiesta RS WRC and later under his own banner. He posted a best result of fifth in Germany and won stages on multiple surfaces, often showing outright pace but struggling to stitch full weekends together.
“I had to adapt a lot after the accident,” Kubica said at the time. “Rallying gave me something different. You are always reacting, always adjusting.”
He and team-mates Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye celebrated Le Mans win on Sunday
© FIA World Endurance Championship
While results at the top level were mixed, the discipline proved vital in Kubica’s return to high-level competition. It built stamina, decision-making under pressure, and car control in unpredictable conditions — traits that transferred well as he shifted focus to endurance racing.
Kubica joined the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2021 and won the LMP2 title in 2023 before stepping up to Ferrari’s Hypercar customer programme this season. At Le Mans, he and team-mates Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye held off Porsche to seal Ferrari’s second consecutive overall win at the event — this time with its customer AF Corse squad.
He now joins a small group of drivers to have scored points in both WRC and F1 — and stands alone in adding an outright Le Mans win to that list.
