Kubica Chose AF Corse Out of “Three Possibilities”

The opportunity for Robert Kubica to join AF Corse’s lineup for its third Hypercar “came quite late” according to the Polish driver, who said moving up to the top class was the next logical step after several years of racing in LMP2.

Kubica signed on as an AF Corse driver in November to partner up with Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman aboard the No. 83 Ferrari 499P, which will debut in this weekend’s Qatar 1812km.

The announcement of his move to the Amato Ferrari-led stable came not long after it was revealed that the reigning LMP2 champion had been in contact with Hertz Team JOTA about a race seat in its expanded customer Porsche 963 stable.

“Let’s say the opportunity came quite late in the last phase,” Kubica said. “We have been in contact much earlier, but then I think there were some uncertainties regarding if Ferrari will allow AF Corse to run a third car.

“So, in the end, if I have to be honest, I was going to the Bahrain race weekend with not a clear idea and knowledge of what I would be doing.”

Kubica hinted that he ended up with “three serious possibilities” for a 2024 seat before ultimately settling on AF Corse.

“I think each of them had positives,” he said. “I think they were all three in some ways competitive and I had a very good position. I would say in my head I was quite relaxed.

“I was convinced that wherever I would choose I think I would find tools [with] which you are capable of doing well and ingredients to make it work.

“Of course there is never a guarantee of the results in the sport, but in the end racing for Ferrari, I was close a few times during my career.”

Kubica is widely known to have been on the brink of racing for the Prancing Horse in Formula 1 before a rally crash in 2011 derailed his career. Thirteen years later he will line up for Ferrari in WEC’s expanded Hypercar class, which he describes as a “new challenge.”

“A new adventure represents new challenges,” he said.

“It’s a relatively young project. In the end, AF Corse is also running a factory car, but we are a young group with for sure quite high potential, but we have to learn a lot.

“We are going against, probably, the class which in last ten years has not been at such a competitive level as it is this year.

“Most of the teams and drivers have already done a season last year, or they were testing with the factories.”

Kubica described the move to Hypercar after three years of racing LMP2 as the ‘normal approach,’ also considering the fact that the class in which he won the world title last year is no longer part of the WEC grid.

“If I wanted to stay in endurance, honestly with all respect, there was two ways. Or you try to go to Hypercar, the top category, or you race [in] GT3.

“GT3, I never raced in my life. So it was quite clear for me that the target would be to join Hypercar. And, whoever it would be, I wanted to be in the best possible scenario in order to compete on the highest level.”