Few stories in motor racing are more heartwarming than Thursday's announcement that Robert Kubica will drive in Formula One next season, eight years after a crash that would have destroyed most men.

Among his multiple compound fractures, the right arm was so damaged that doctors considered amputating it. That limb remains withered and partially dysfunctional. Kubica's indomitable desire to race again became, in his own words: "A story that probably nobody believed. The only one who didn't give up was me and the people around me. But nothing is impossible."