VIDEO: Watch an F1 racer thrash a BMW M4 at the Nurburgring

Footage of Robert Kubica thrashing a modified BMW M4 on the Nurburgring has emerged online, offering us a rare glimpse at what an F1 driver can do at the famed circuit in a street car.

Now, you may have seen a few laps of the most fearsome circuit left on the planet, but trust us... this one tops them all.

Shot from the point of view of Misha Charoudin, who sits in on the lap as a student rather than his usual role as a ’Ring instructor, Kubica displays a level of raw speed and on-limit yet in-control commitment you’d expect from a grand prix winner.

Sadly, there’s no lap time accompanying the effort. Kubica is flat out from what is known as the bridge to gantry (a shortened lap) and encounters traffic on multiple occasions, including a Porsche 911 GT2 RS.

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But the video also dispels doubt over the Polish driver’s ability, long the subject of conjecture after a life-changing rally accident in 2011 almost severed his right arm and leaving him with a functional but compromised right hand.

It’s clear from the first corners that his skills extend far beyond the BMW M4’s limits, as he rarely misses an apex or opportunity to use every last available inch on track. It’s breathtaking.

Yet, Kubica - who's also competed in the top echelons of the World Rally Championship - described the pace as “safe”.

At the video's end, Charoudrin admits he would have been asking to get out if it was anyone else driving the car that hard.

Apex Nurburg rental shop owner Robert Mitchell has joked on the video’s comment section that the car might need a few days before anyone else can hire it as they need “a few days to rebuild it”.

It’s startling to learn in the video’s first minutes that it’s basically still a sighting lap for Kubica who’s only done 15 laps prior at the joint.

He admits he’d practiced on iRacing over lockdown and the track is actually quite different from the virtual reality.

“The track actually reproduces pretty well,” he says. “Some corners I thought they are faster than on the game, some are probably a bit slower."

But the story gets better. Kubica says he ended up at Charoudin’s rental shop after other outlets insisted the DTM racer and Alfa Romeo Sauber test driver needed to carry an instructor onboard as a passenger.

Kubica drove for Williams F1 during the 2019 season but was replaced this year after failing to keep on his teammate George Russell’s pace.