Several years later Kubica confirmed he had signed a pre-contract for the 2012 season with Ferrari, a move that was eventually cancelled by his devastating rally crash in early 2011.

[1] On 6 February 2011, Kubica was seriously injured in a crash at the Ronde di Andora rally, in which he suffered partial amputation to his forearm, and fractures on his right elbow, shoulder and leg.

[3] Kubica told Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport in a bedside interview that he could feel the fingers in his right hand and was determined to make a swift return to Formula One in 2011.

[14] He left the Williams team at the end of 2019, moving across to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters,[15] while maintaining a Formula One presence as reserve and test driver for Alfa Romeo.

Kubica developed his love for all kinds of cars at the young age of four when he spotted a small off-road vehicle, powered by a 4 bhp (3.0 kW) petrol engine.

This decision was made too early: a very slow next lap in extremely wet and slippery conditions and another pit stop to change back to intermediates cost him his place in the points.

[29][30] Further reports from late evening on race day, directly from the hospital, confirmed that Kubica had suffered a light concussion alongside a sprained ankle.

[31] On 14 June it was announced that as a precaution, Kubica would not race at the United States Grand Prix and would be replaced by test driver Sebastian Vettel.

[32] After missing Indianapolis, he returned for the French Grand Prix where he qualified and finished in fourth place, receiving ITV broadcaster Martin Brundle's driver of the day award.

In the next 3 races both BMW Sauber drivers finished outside the points again, but during the European and Belgian Grands Prix again proved to be competitive, scoring 8th and 4th positions respectively.

[42][43] At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Kubica scored his first podium of the season despite engine temperature problems by finishing in 2nd place, 7.6 seconds behind winner Mark Webber.

His position was briefly put in doubt, however, by the team evaluating its future in the sport following the 2009 season in the wake of the "Crashgate" scandal and the parent company's financial problems.

It was reported in Autosport that Ferrari driver Felipe Massa had until the 2010 British Grand Prix to prove to the Maranello outfit that he was worth hanging onto: if not, Kubica would take his seat in 2011.

He was driving a Super 2000-specification Škoda Fabia[60] in Testico when his car left the road at high speed and hit a crash barrier,[61] near the church of San Sebastiano.

[64] He was flown by helicopter to Santa Corona Hospital in Pietra Ligure[65] near Savona, where it was confirmed that he had a partial amputation of his forearm, compound fractures to his right elbow, shoulder and leg, as well as significant loss of blood.

Kubica conducted a number of simulator tests with the Mercedes Formula 1 team which showed promise, but limitations in the range of motion of his injured arm would prevent him from driving in twisty circuits like Monaco due to the tight confines of an F1 cockpit.

For the rest of the season, he participated in the main WRC class for the RK M-Sport, running as separate team, backed by Polish oil company Lotos.

Kubica began his WRC campaign by taking the lead of the Monte Carlo Rally through the first two stages, but later retired on the second day after crashing out on SS9.

Kubica suffered from a string of bad luck for the rest of the season, being fast on occasion but rarely managing to convert his speed into results.

He finished the year on a positive note by winning the non-championship Monza Rally Show, beating motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi to second.

[79] In January 2017, he took part in the first round of the 24H Series, the Dubai 24 Hour, driving a Förch Racing Porsche 911 GT3 in the A6-Pro class with co-drivers Robert Lukas, Marcin Jedliński, Wolf Henzler and Santiago Creel.

[citation needed] After the pre-season testing at Italy's Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where Kubica did not do any running, the driver announced via social media that he would not be participating[82] in the forthcoming season.

On 5 June 2017, it was announced that Kubica would be driving in a Renault-organized test of their 2012 car, the Lotus E20, at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, his first Formula One event since his accident in 2011.

[89] After Felipe Massa announced his retirement from the sport for the second time,[90] Kubica became one of the top contenders to take his seat at Williams Martini Racing.

[97] Before the final round of the 2018 season, Williams announced that Kubica would race full-time for the team in 2019, partnering 2018 Formula 2 champion George Russell.

Kubica joined Alfa Romeo Racing in a reserve driver role for the 2020 season, returning to the team he made his Formula One debut with in 2006 (when it was still known as BMW Sauber).

[103] Full-time Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Räikkönen tested positive for COVID-19 on the weekend of the Dutch Grand Prix, with Kubica replacing him.

[112] In the previous season, Kubica achieved success with Orlen Team WRT in the European Le Mans Series, marking his debut in endurance racing.

In October of that year, Kubica participated in two rounds of the FIA WEC season in Bahrain with High-Class Racing, contributing to the Danish team clinching the podium twice in the ProAm class.

For the 2024 season, Kubica would step up to the Hypercar class to drive the #83 Ferrari 499P of AF Corse in the WEC, partnering Ye Yifei and Robert Shwartzman.