Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica is the only Polish driver to have won a Grand Prix, and his career is one of those that make you wonder what might have been. Born in Kraków in 1984, he made his debut midway through 2006 with BMW Sauber, replacing Jacques Villeneuve, and by his third race he was on the podium at Monza.

In Canada 2007 he survived one of the most violent crashes of the decade. He missed a single race, Indianapolis, where Sebastian Vettel made his debut in his place, and came back with no apparent after-effects. A year later he returned to Montreal and won: it was BMW Sauber's only victory, a one-two with Nick Heidfeld. That season he also took the team's only pole, in Bahrain, and finished fourth in the championship with seven podiums.

In 2010, now at Renault, he scored three podiums in a car that had no business getting them. But in February 2011 a rally crash left him with serious injuries to his right arm and kept him out of Formula 1 for eight years. He came back in 2019 with Williams, in the slowest car on the grid, and in Germany scored the only point the team managed all year. In 2021 he still raced twice for Alfa Romeo.

One win, one pole and twelve podiums is his record. For many people in the paddock, what defines him best is what never got the chance to happen.