Kamui Kobayashi

Kamui Kobayashi is a Japanese professional racing driver who, as of 2021, competes for Toyota Gazoo Racing (GR) in the FIA World Endurance Championship and KCMG in the Super Formula Championship. He has raced in Formula One, Formula E, the GP2 Series, and the GP2 Asia Series in the past (which he won). Kobayashi, along with teammates Mike Conway and José Mara López, is the 2019-20 World Endurance champion. He is Japan’s third FIA world champion, following Toshi Arai and Kazuki Nakajima. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021 while driving for Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Formula One

On November 16, 2007, it was announced that Kobayashi would be the Toyota F1 team’s third driver, replacing the departing Franck Montagny. During the 2008 and 2009 seasons, he served as the team’s test and reserve driver. Kobayashi competed in the first two free practise sessions of the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix in place of Timo Glock, who was ill. [3] Glock recovered in time for the third free practise session and qualifying, but was injured in the final session and had to withdraw from the race. Toyota requested permission from the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) to enter Kobayashi in the race, but this was denied.

Following an unnoticed complication to Glock’s injury, Kobayashi made his Formula One debut at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.  He qualified 11th in a chaotic session that lasted over two and a half hours and was red-flagged twice due to rain-related accidents. Early in the race, while running sixth, he held off a challenge from Jenson Button, who needed to finish well to win the world championship. He finished tenth, but was later promoted to ninth when Heikki Kovalainen was penalised. Button joked that Kobayashi was absolutely crazy, very aggressive. He also raced in the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix because Glock’s injury had not healed completely.

Sauber

Following Toyota’s withdrawal, Kobayashi’s future was uncertain, but he was named to lists of potential drivers for the series’ new teams in 2010. On December 17, 2009, after weeks of speculation, it was confirmed that he would drive for Sauber for the 2010 season. Despite the fact that BMW had sold the team back to founder Peter Sauber after the 2009 season and that it no longer used BMW components, the team was still known as BMW Sauber, as it had been for the previous four seasons. Pedro de la Rosa, a former McLaren tester, was his teammate. On February 2, Kobayashi completed his first laps in the new Sauber C29 chassis during F1 winter testing.

Kobayashi stayed with Sauber and was paired with GP2 graduate Sergio Pérez. Kobayashi finished eighth in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but he and Pérez were disqualified after the race due to a problem with the car’s rear wing. The next race of the season, in Malaysia, saw Kobayashi put in another strong performance, finishing eighth and eventually being classified seventh after Lewis Hamilton received a penalty.

He finished tenth in his next three races before finishing fifth in an action-packed Monaco Grand Prix. In an extremely wet Canadian Grand Prix, Kobayashi advanced from 13th to second place despite not changing to extreme wet tyres before the race was red-flagged, as many other drivers did. This effectively granted him a free pit stop while the race was halted. After the restart, the track began to dry out, and Kobayashi dropped several positions after switching to intermediate tyres and then slicks, including a spin while lapping a backmarker and being rear-ended by Nick Heidfeld. He finished seventh, 0.045 seconds slower than Felipe Massa, who passed him on the final straight.

On July 28, 2011, it was announced that Kobayashi, along with teammate Pérez, would remain with Sauber for the 2012 season. Kobayashi began the season with a sixth-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix and a retirement at the Malaysian Grand Prix due to brake problems. He then qualified third in the Chinese Grand Prix, trailing Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. He dropped to tenth place but set the fastest lap. He finished fifth in the Spanish Grand Prix after passing Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg.

First podium

Kobayashi finished third in the Japanese Grand Prix, his first podium in Formula One, after withstanding race-long pressure from Jenson Button. After Aguri Suzuki in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix, Kobayashi became the first Japanese driver to finish on a Formula One podium in Japan in 22 years, and the third Japanese driver to finish on a Formula One podium after Suzuki and Takuma Sato in the 2004 United States Grand Prix.

On November 23, 2012, Sauber announced that Kobayashi would not be joining the team for the 2013 season, with Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Gutiérrez forming the race team and Robin Frijns serving as reserve driver. With 60 points, Kobayashi finished the season in twelfth place in the Drivers’ Championship. Despite raising approximately €8 million in sponsorship, Kobayashi chose to focus on obtaining a competitive drive for the 2014 season rather than a drive for the 2013 season.

Career Stats