WEC News: Kubica finally gets his Ferrari drive

(GMM) Robert Kubica will finally get his chance to aim for a world championship in a works Ferrari, but in WEC, not F1.

Prior to the tragic and sudden end of his highly promising Formula 1 career, the now 39-year-old Pole was on course to become Fernando Alonso’s teammate at the Maranello team.

Permanent injuries sustained in a rallying crash then ended his F1 dream, apart from an unsuccessful return for Williams in 2019.

Kubica told La Gazzetta dello Sport that losing his F1 dream with Ferrari remains an “open wound”.

“As an F1 driver, I had two goals in mind – to become champion and to race in red,” he said. “That didn’t work out, because life had something else in mind for me.

“But now I am just as happy,” Kubica added, referring to his newly-confirmed 2024 role as a driver of Ferrari’s new hypercar WEC project, including Le Mans.

“Being able to drive the 24 Hours of Le Mans feels like driving 15 Formula 1 races in a row,” said Kubica, who won the second-tier LMP2 category last year.

“To be able to do that in red is very special. I have tried many times to find a way to get into Ferrari. Driving with Ferrari is something completely different than driving with other brands.”

Meanwhile, some still wonder which driver would have gotten the upper hand at Ferrari’s F1 team if Kubica and Spaniard Alonso were paired together.

“Beating Fernando with the same car would have been difficult,” Kubica admits, “but I would have liked to have experienced the challenge.

“When we raced in F1, the respect was mutual – we think the same way about many things. But we potentially would have been a high-risk pair for Ferrari.

“But I think in reality we would have done great things together. It should have been like that, but today I am as happy with this new adventure with the red car as when I signed for Ferrari back then for 2012.”