Robert Kubica has reportedly decided to call time on his Formula 1 career and focus on other areas of motorsport.
The Pole is an F1 race winner, having earned victory racing for BMW Sauber at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix. His career was going from strength to strength and he had even signed a deal with Ferrari – but then fate got in the way of that move.
His arm was partially severed in a huge crash in a rally race in February 2011. Remarkably, after a lengthy recovery and participation in other series, Kubica proved his F1 career was not yet over as he was announced as a Williams reserve for the 2018 season.
He stepped up to take a race seat the following season and, after another year, returned to Sauber – branded now as Alfa Romeo – as a reserve. Kubica raced twice for the team in 2021, replacing Kimi Raikkonen who was absent after a positive Covid test.
The 38-year-old’s future has looked uncertain for many months, and speculation over his departure only intensified when the ORLEN sponsor disappeared from the team’s list of sponsors on its website. It reappeared a few days later, but a report from Poland confirms that the partnership has come to an end.
According to WP Sportowefakty, it will be announced on Friday that ORLEN will partner with AlphaTauri. The oil refinery company is not expected to be a title sponsor, as was the case with Alfa Romeo.
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The report adds, however, that Kubica will not be moving to AlphaTauri with the Polish company. He is said to have decided to end his F1 career, in order to focus fully on racing in the World Endurance Championship.
Kubica had recently declared that his future in F1 would depend on his sponsor’s next move. “It depends on Orlen and what they want to do next, but it would not be a surprise if I no longer get a seat as an official driver in Formula 1 anymore,” he said.
On Thursday, Alfa Romeo announced they will not have a team principal for the 2023 season. Instead, Alessandro Alunni Bravi has been appointed as ‘team representative’ on race weekends and other official functions, reporting to new Sauber chief executive Andreas Seidl.
