Kubica Suggests Staying in No. 83 Ferrari Now Likely

Robert Kubica has indicated that staying in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari is his most likely option for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

The Polish ex-Formula 1 driver joined AF at the start of this year to pilot the team’s third-string, privately-entered Ferrari 499P alongside a pair of the Italian manufacturer’s factory drivers, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye.

The trio took victory at the Circuit of The Americas on their way to ninth in the Hypercar drivers’ standings and third in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams.

While Shwartzman was confirmed earlier this week to be departing Ferrari to contest the NTT IndyCar Series for Prema Racing, Ye is expected to stay on for a second season in the No. 83 squad alongside new signing Phil Hanson.

Ferrari’s global head of endurance Antonello Coletta said during last week’s Bahrain finale that he hoped Kubica would stay on to join Ye and Hanson.

Providing an update on his future plans shortly afterwards, Kubica gave a firm indication that he plans to remain with AF assuming that the commercial aspects can be agreed.

“We are a new group, all three drivers racing the car for the first time this year,” Kubica told Sportscar365. “Motorsport is at such a high level that you need to work on small and fine details, and this requires time.

“When I chose AF 12 months ago, it was a straight idea of staying [for multiple seasons]. For me it doesn’t make sense to change things.  But, as is often the case in motorsport, some things have to click.

“We see things positively both ways and I hope it’s a question of a short amount of time to see if we can make it work or not.”

Speaking to Sportscar365 during July’s Sao Paulo round, which followed the No. 83 enjoying a spell in the lead in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Kubica hinted he was unhappy with the situation at AF and said he would review his options for 2025.

He said at the time that he believed a privateer car had no chance of winning at Le Mans in future, and that he wished to be the “priority” of whichever manufacturer he happened to be racing for.

Asked if he still stood by those remarks, Kubica replied: “I still believe that.

“This year we can say we were in an impossible fight. I still think we had the pace, but you have to be there for the last hour, or even the last lap to fight. My first Le Mans [in 2021] taught me you can go into the last lap at Le Mans leading and still not win.

“I still believe that factory cars and teams have more chances to win. If I had to bet on who will win, I would choose a factory car. But if it doesn’t mean if I stay next year, we won’t be in a position to repeat what we did this year, hopefully with a better result.”

Kubica also admitted that the Ferrari 499P’s general competitiveness at Le Mans would play a role in his decision, given that the Maranello brand has won the past two editions of the French classic with its factory cars.

“In the end, when I was choosing this year, Le Mans is the priority,” he said. “Of course it would be nice to be competitive everywhere, but we have seen this year it’s very difficult to be competitive everywhere.

“I would like to be in the best possible car for me in Le Mans, and probably today that is the No. 83 car.

“I have to be honest, I was in talks, and there might be opportunities in other places, but I think that staying in the No. 83 is my best chance at Le Mans.”