Career Stats Team BMW Sauber Nationality Polish Podiums 1 Points 45 Grand Prix entered 22 World Championships 0 Highest race finish 3rd Pole Positions 4 Date of Birth 07/12/1984 Place of Birth Krakow

After his sensational Formula 1 debut in mid-2006, Robert Kubica was expected to further enhance his reputation as a champion-in-waiting during 2007.

But things didn't go according to plan for Poland's first F1 star.

Often outpaced and comfortably outscored by his BMW team-mate Nick Heidfeld, Kubica admitted at the end of the year that he had underperformed.

Indeed his season will be best remembered for a ferocious accident in Canada – arguably the most violent non-fatal crash in F1's history, yet Kubica emerged virtually unscathed.

There were mitigating circumstances behind Kubica's largely anonymous 2007 campaign.

His driving style proved ill-suited to the Bridgestone control tyres, and he bore the brunt of BMW's reliability problems.

There was almost a sensational breakthrough in China, where a supreme performance in changeable conditions saw Kubica emerge in the race lead – but only for a single lap before his hydraulics failed...

In some ways Kubica was a victim of his own success.

Sixth in the championship, albeit 22 points behind Heidfeld, in his first full season was very respectable, but his stunning late-2006 performances had raised expectations.

Only a technicality had denied Kubica a points finish on his F1 debut in the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix, and he finished on the podium in only his third race.

As Kubica hounded Heidfeld on his Suzuka debut that autumn, few would have predicted that the German would turn the tables in 2007.

Now it's up to Kubica to redress the balance, and to recapture the magic of his debut GPs.

The early years

Kubica's path to F1 was far from straightforward.

He was picked up by Renault's young driver scheme on the basis of his impressive karting career, only to be dropped after just a single Formula Renault season, even though he finished runner-up in the Italian Championship.

The Pole rarely had competitive equipment in Formula 3, but he did manage a heroic comeback win on his return to the 2003 Euro Series after a road crash had left him with a badly broken arm, and he also twice finished second in the legendary Macau street race.

A move to the World Series by Renault in 2005 got Kubica's career on course, as he won the championship and the prize test in a Renault F1 car.

He was also set to drive for Minardi on Chinese GP Friday but was denied a superlicence.

BMW boss Mario Theissen had a hunch about Kubica after watching him at Macau, and decided to snap him up as number three driver for 2006.

This turned out to be a masterstroke.

Kubica was fastest in Bahrain practice – his first official F1 session.

It was just one of a string of superb Friday practice performances and BMW was soon convinced that its unheralded Polish novice was faster than veteran race drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Heidfeld.

When BMW suggested that Villeneuve take part in a ‘shoot-out' with Kubica to decide who should get a 2007 seat, the former world champion quit F1 in disgust on the eve of the Hungarian GP, clearing the way for Kubica to make his debut.

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