When speaking to Robert Kubica, his passion for all forms of motorsport quickly comes to the surface. So perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that when choosing his favourite car, the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner eschews the obvious pick of the BMW-Sauber F1.08 that he drove to his only Formula 1 victory in Montreal. In any case, he regards the 2005 F1 title-winning Renault R25 that he tested at Barcelona after winning that year’s Formula Renault 3.5 title as “the most amazing car I drove”.
For his favourite, Kubica instead picks a rally car but, given the very first vehicle the Pole bought with his own money was a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9, his choice of the Subaru Impreza S12B WRC 07 is perhaps a little unexpected.
“You were Mitsubishi or Subaru, and I was a Mitsubishi guy,” says Kubica of his youth in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the two Japanese manufacturers were at the peak of their popularity in the World Rally Championship.
It was that long-held passion for rallying that took Kubica to his fateful participation in the 2011 Ronde di Andora Rally in Italy. His Skoda Fabia’s brutal impact with a barrier that changed his life forever abruptly halted an F1 career that looked destined for greatness, but Kubica says he “never doubted that I will be back” in competition in some form.
And so it was in September 2012, after 19 months and 16 operations, that Kubica made his eagerly anticipated competition return in the Subaru on three supposedly low-key asphalt rallies in Italy. Aboard a First Motorsport-run Impreza with his initials emblazoned on the bonnet, he won the Ronde Gomitolo di Lana rally, crashed out of the San Martino di Castrozza and then won in Bassano del Grappa.
Citroen then came calling and his career embarked on a move into the WRC for the next three seasons before stepping up his efforts to secure an F1 return that eventually materialised with the woeful Williams FW42 in 2019 and two cameo appearances for a COVID-stricken Kimi Raikkonen as Alfa Romeo's reserve in 2021.
The S12B isn’t regarded as the finest of the Banbury-built Impreza family, mustering just two podiums with 2003 world champion Peter Solberg in 2007 before Chris Atkinson managed another four with an updated car the following year. It was plagued by handling issues, with Solberg notably withdrawing in Finland when his car felt undriveable. Kubica acknowledges that it was “not necessarily super nice to drive” although enjoyed its full WRC-spec four-wheel drive, admiring “the engine sound, the power it has”.
Source: Autosport