On the eve of an incredible return to F1, the Williams driver explains how his difficult character helped him overcome the physical and mental effects of losing part of his arm

Robert Kubica is all too aware of the staggering odds he has defied in making his return to Formula One, but his achievement truly hits home upon greeting him in the Williams motorhome. The measure of the remarkable comeback he will make when he takes to the grid for next Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix is starkly illustrated when the Pole leans in to shake hands. His eyes still gleam with a piercing strength of purpose but beneath them his right forearm, partially severed in an accident eight years ago, carries little weight in the handshake and bears the visible disfigurement of repeated surgery.

Even now on the eve of his return, it seems hard to believe he has overcome such a calamitous injury, but for Kubica it was the psychological battle that proved to be the greatest challenge of his life.

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The 34-year-old, a contemporary of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, was the first Polish driver in F1 when he made his debut for BMW Sauber in 2006. Next weekend he will climb behind the wheel for Williams in Melbourne for his first F1 race since that horrific accident while competing in a low-key rally in Italy. Before that fateful day he was lauded as one of the best of his generation and was proving it. He had won one grand prix – in Canada in 2008 – and scored 12 podium finishes. After a season with Renault in 2010, with another set for the following year, he had been rewarded with a pre-contract move to Ferrari in 2012.

This promising future was devastated in moments after a crash in his Skoda Fabia in February 2011 during the first stage of the Ronde di Andora rally, in which he was competing largely for fun. The injuries he sustained were so severe they were expected to end his career. He endured emergency surgery – including a partial amputation of his right forearm – and suffered compound fractures and a significant loss of blood.

You live in a different situation, so in the end there is a kind of switch. I discovered how powerful the brain can be.

Repeated surgery followed and in 2013 Kubica said his dream of a return to F1 was “nearly impossible”. Yet merely accepting this fate without a fight was never an option. “You gain nothing from giving up,” he says. “I knew it would not fix my problems. You have to face reality, you have to adapt and try to move forward. It’s simple, you don’t gain anything by giving up.”

The immediate aftermath had been a low point. “The period straight after the accident was probably most difficult physically,” he says, and when his recovery was under way he had to learn to adapt and overcome. He describes it as a process of learning about his body and its new limitations. He shook hands for a long time with his left and had to adapt to write with it as well. But ultimately these were minor challenges.

“You live in a different situation, so in the end there is a kind of switch and you change your mind, you have to learn and you want to learn,” he says. “I discovered how powerful the brain can be. The brain adapts very quickly. It is incredible how quickly we can adapt and what progress we can make in a very short time.”

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This ability to adjust to a new way of life proved to be one of his greatest assets in the real struggle as he fought what might have been debilitating setbacks during his recovery. “The period where you have to adapt mentally, this was even more difficult,” he says. “Physical things you can solve. But then many times after surgery to improve things, you discover you have not moved forwards but backwards. Dealing with that is a mental task. You have to be strong. I do not have an easy character, definitely, and in those days this character helped me quite a lot.”

By 2013, his indomitable refusal to accept defeat was rewarded when he returned to rallying. By 2015, he made the decision to test himself by setting targets to see how far he could push his return to F1 racing. In 2017, he tested the 2012 Renault and it was revelatory. “I felt amazing in the car,” he says. “After a few laps, it felt so familiar to me. Those laps did not feel like it had been a six‑year break. It felt like I had missed a couple of months. This opened up and unlocked my mind to see that maybe I can do it.”

Quick guide F1 2019: Teams and drivers Show Hide There have been plenty of drivers switching seats in the buildup to the new season. Daniel Ricciardo has left Red Bull for Renault, with Carlos Sainz moving to McLaren after Fernando Alonso's departure. Frenchman Pierre Gasly has been promoted from Toro Rosso to replace Ricciardo, with British-Thai driver Alex Albon taking his place. Charles Leclerc moves from Sauber to partner Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, trading places with Kimi Räikkönen (pictured), who will race for a rebranded Alfa Romeo team. Force India are now known as Racing Point, with Lance Stroll joining them from Williams. The British constructor welcomes two new drivers –home hopeful and Formula 2 world champion George Russell and Robert Kubica, who makes his F1 return eight years after suffering life-threatening injuries in a rallying accident. How the teams line up Alfa Romeo Kimi Räikkönen (Fin), Antonio Giovinazzi (It)

Ferrari Sebastian Vettel (Ger), Charles Leclerc (Mon)

Haas Romain Grosjean (Fr), Kevin Magnussen (Den)

McLaren Lando Norris (GB), Carlos Sainz (Sp)

Mercedes Lewis Hamilton (GB), Valtteri Bottas (Fin)

Racing Point Sergio Pérez (Mex), Lance Stroll (Can)

Red Bull Pierre Gasly (Fr), Max Verstappen (Neth)

Renault Daniel Ricciardo (Aus), Nico Hülkenburg (Ger)

Toro Rosso Alexander Albon (Thai), Daniil Kvyat (Rus)

Williams George Russell (GB), Robert Kubica (Pol) Photograph: Cyril Zingaro/KEYSTONE

Part of the pleasure in watching Kubica drive is his economy of style, the smoothness with which he handles the car and coerces the best from it with delicate precision. He admits that he has to drive “70%” left-handed, a feat that might be impossible for other racing drivers.

During rehabilitation, he worked at Formula Medicine in Tuscany with Dr Riccardo Ceccarelli, a specialist in sports medicine who has worked with more than 70 F1 drivers. Ceccarelli has asserted that Kubica was almost unique in being able to come back from such severe injuries both mentally and physically. “Even if he’s in a difficult situation, he’s able to cut himself off from outside stress and allow the brain to focus on the driving,” said Ceccarelli. “This is why he consumes very low energy. This is why he’s the only driver able to drive an F1 car with a physical limitation that he has. It’s because he’s so natural in driving, so economic, he can positively compensate.”

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Williams will have enjoyed the publicity his comeback has brought especially when last season proved to be the worst they have endured, finishing in last place, but the deputy team principal, Claire Williams, has been adamant Kubica earned his seat on merit. “Every report I had was: ‘He is eminently capable of driving an F1 car,’” she said. “We wouldn’t have given him the race seat if we didn’t feel we could. From a fitness perspective, I think you would struggle to find a fitter racing driver.”

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When the new season gets under way Mercedes and Ferrari will once again be at the sharp end fighting for the title, with the Scuderia appearing to have the advantage after pre-season testing. Kubica and Williams, however, face an equally demanding task but at the other end of the grid. Williams missed two and a half days of testing when their car was not ready and when it did run it was off the pace. The team’s technical director, Paddy Lowe, was held responsible and last week he took a leave of absence for what the team called personal reasons, expected to be the precursor to his leaving officially. Kubica has missed what he needs most, which is time behind the wheel. It is not the start he would have wanted but he knows this was never going to be easy.

We shake hands, the almost tentative tenderness of his grip impossible to ignore and reinforcing the sense that whatever happens in Melbourne it will be the culmination of an astonishing achievement. But what really endures is the conviction in the final words that sum up the strength that brought him here. “When my drive with Williams was announced people said: ‘Congratulations, the hard job is done,’” he says. “I said: ‘No. The hard job is just starting.’”