Ferrari driver admits disappointment over failed F1 transfer

Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Lewis Hamilton on the podium at the 2008 Bahrain GP — Photo: © IMAGO

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Ferrari driver admits disappointment over failed F1 transfer

Polish driver Robert Kubica raced in F1 between 2006-2010, and again in 2019

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 23 June 2026 12:30

Former F1 driver Robert Kubica has opened up on his disappointment at failing to get a move to the Ferrari team during his time in the sport.

Kubica now races a Ferrari 499P hypercar for AF Corse in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), but has had two spells as an F1 driver across his long racing career.

The Polish racer competed with BMW Sauber between 2006-2009, before moving to Renault, where he claimed three podiums in the 2010 season.

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Kubica was then lined up to replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari for the 2012 season, something that was not revealed until several years after a horrific crash.

Unfortunately for Kubica, he suffered a bad incident during the Ronde di Andora rally in 2011, which caused him severe injuries, and he had to cut short his time in F1.

Kubica then made a heroic return to the sport at first as a reserve driver for Williams in 2018, before becoming a full-time F1 racer once more for the Williams team in the 2019 season.

After completing one season there, Kubica then moved on to become Alfa Romeo's reserve driver, and competed in two grands prix during the 2021 season.

Kubica's Ferrari regrets

Since then, Kubica has been racing in many different series across Europe, including the WEC, the IMSA SportsCar Championship, and the European Le Mans Series.

Kubica won the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year with AF Corse, and finished runner-up in the WEC championship standings alongside his team-mates.

But it seems the Polish racer still regrets never having been able to race the red F1 cars.

"It's a bit different of course, it's impossible to compare those days where in the end I was on the way to become a Ferrari F1 driver," Kubica told Autosport. "Nothing to take away from the Hypercar category, but of course when you are in Formula 1, I think as an established driver there are two things which I had always a goal - hopefully one day becoming world champion or an opportunity to fight for it, and second one was to become a Ferrari F1 driver.

"So I didn't achieve [either] of them, I was on the way to become a Ferrari F1 driver, unfortunately because of the accident it didn't happen.

"For sure you cannot compare them, but I have to say that one of the reasons why at the end of 2023 I decided to drive for AF Corse was that… in previous questions I said I overcame every kind of bad memories I had after my accident; one of the things which was always destabilising myself, or kind of a bit bleeding still, was that one of the biggest regrets probably was that I never managed to sit behind the Ferrari wheel in a F1 car.

"Of course there are technical reasons but one of the reasons why I said ‘Yes I will go this direction with AF Corse’ was that probably in the future if I would not go I will regret that I had a chance to drive a Ferrari car in hypercar and I didn't. So this was also one of the kind of more emotional things than any technical aspects; probably you will never have this kind of thinking, but because there was this bleeding thing still for many years, this was, let's say, my way of thinking."

F1 Ferrari World Endurance Championship Robert Kubica