Formula 1 race-winner Robert Kubica will make a full-time return to the sport with Williams next season, eight years after his career was seemingly abruptly ended by a serious rally accident.
The Pole, who won the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix for BMW Sauber and has scored 12 podium finishes, was one of the star drivers on the grid, but in February 2011 was involved in a heavy crash while driving a Skoda Fabia in the Ronde di Andora rally.
Kubica hit a crash barrier at high speed, suffering serious injuries to his right arm and leg that limited his mobility.
Kubica, 33, returned to full-time competition in rallying in 2013, winning the second-tier World Rally Championship-2 title before moving up to the top-level WRC in 2014 and 2015. He has also competed in sports car racing but never gave up on his ambitions to return to single-seaters.
He tested a Renault F1 car in 2017 and was in contention for a race seat with Williams this year, but he missed out to Russian rookie Sergey Sirotkin and was named test driver instead.
Kubica has driven for the British team in a number of tests and in several Friday practice sessions on race weekends throughout 2018.
But he has now secured a race seat with the team, which will continue to use Mercedes engines in 2019.
“I would like to thank everyone who has helped me during what was a difficult period of my life over these last few years,” said Kubica. “It has been a challenging journey to make it back to the F1 grid, but what seemed almost impossible is now beginning to feel possible, as I'm excited to be able to say that I will be on the F1 grid in 2019.
