Kubica the Pride of Poland

Since making his debut in Formula One at the Hungaroring earlier this year Robert Kubica's has become one of Poland's favourite sons and his popularity shows no signs of waning any time soon.

The 21-year-old became the first Polish driver in F1 in Hungary and a couple of good performances saw the test driver confirmed as a permanent race driver for the 2007 season.

According to BMW team boss Mario Theissen, Kubica's success has had a remarkable affect in his home country and motorsport as a whole is benefiting.

"Currently the Polish scene is exploding," said Theissen.

"Motorsport pratically didn't exist there before and had very little public attention. Now everything has changed. Robert has become a national hero overnight."

Naturally the young man Krakow is not taking it too seriously at the moment and is looking to simply concentrating on performing for BMW and is not concerned with anything going on off the track.

"I don't want to be popular - I don't like that at all," he said.

"Of course I'm happy, but I prefer to keep both my feet firmly on the ground."
Source:boarding.no