“Kubica’s enthusiasm is undimmed”

You wouldn’t normally pack a pair of boxing gloves for a Formula 1 car launch. But that’s exactly what we took to Valencia in the winter of 2009.

BMW Sauber was unveiling its new car and MN’S sister title F1 Racing had an interview and photoshoot planned for the team’s lead driver. In one of the spare garages we roped-up a boxing ring and when Robert Kubica arrived, we asked him to lace up the gloves. He did, without a single utterance of complaint.

The Pole had won in Canada the previous year and we thought he’d be in the fight for the 2009 world title. At one point our photographer asked Kubica to hold up his gloves and roar “like a bear” into the lens. There was a lot of laughter, but the result was an unforgettable image.

Two years later and I’m sitting in an office in Enstone, once again interviewing Kubica ahead of the new season. Now into his second year with Lotus Renault, he’d topped the times in the first test and was optimistic for a decent 2011. At that moment in time, Kubica’s career was on a stellar trajectory and he was being linked with a Ferrari drive in the future.

I asked whether he fancied going head-tohead with Alonso, arguing that such a proposition would be “tough”. He smiled and replied: “Well, life is tough…”

We didn’t know then how prophetic those words would be.

The interview was never published as, just a few weeks later, he suffered his welldocumented crash on the Ronde di Andora rally. The Armco sliced through the car and his right arm and he was extremely lucky to survive. It looked as though his racing career would be over forever. And while he was eventually able to return to rallying, he never gave up on the dream to come back to F1.

Last Saturday, I bumped into the six-foot figure at Monza. It was the first time he’d been in an F1 paddock since his accident. Despite his weakened right arm, he was exactly the same as when I last spoke to him six years ago. His enthusiasm for racing is undimmed and his confidence that he has the ability to perform at the top level is still sky high.

After impressing in his high-profile comeback test for Renault in August, he remains in contention for a race seat, not just with a return to the Enstone squad – but other teams are interested in his services too.

I reminded him of that photoshoot we did all those years ago, with the boxing gloves on his hands, and he laughed at the memory. His biggest fight now is to convince a team that he is ready to race for them in 2018…

The Peugeot 908 LMP1 car from 2011