Kamui Kobayashi

Kamui Kobayashi

Kobayashi at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
Born	13 September 1986 (1986-09-13)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Japanese
2012 team	Sauber-Ferrari
2012 car #	14
Races	40
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	65
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2009 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last race	2011 Brazilian Grand Prix
2011 position	12th (30 points)

Kamui Kobayashi
Previous series
2008–09 2008, 2008–09 2006–07 2006– 2005 2004–05 2004 2004 2004	GP2 Series GP2 Asia Series Formula Three Euroseries Formula One testing Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 Italia FR2000 Germany Asian Formula Renault FR2000 Netherlands
Championship titles
2008–09 2005 2005	GP2 Asia Series Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 Italia

Kamui Kobayashi (小林 可夢偉, Kobayashi Kamui, born September 13, 1986 in Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan) is a Japanese racing driver. He has competed in the GP2 Series, won the GP2 Asia Series, and made his Formula One debut with Toyota in the final two races of 2009 when he replaced Timo Glock after the German was injured in a crash during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. He has driven for Sauber since the 2010 season. He was named after Kamuy, divine being in Ainu mythology, and the letter of the name imitated the sound citing three Kanjis from the sentence "Enabling great dream(s)".

Racing career

Early career

Kobayashi was born in the town of Amagasaki, near Kobe. His father owns a sushi restaurant. He began his career in motorsport in 1996 when he was nine years old, finishing third in his first season of karting in the SL Takarazuka Tournament Cadet Class. During the following seven years, Kobayashi took four karting titles, winning the Toyota SL All Japan Tournament Cadet Class series twice.

In 2004, he signed up for Toyota's Driver Academy and soon began his career in open wheel racing. Kobayashi's next step was Formula Renault, entering the Asian, German, Italian and Dutch championships and taking two race victories in the Italian championship. Kobayashi continued his campaign in the Formula Renault class, entering the Italian and European championships and with six wins in both championships, he won both titles.

In 2006, Kobayashi entered the Formula Three Euroseries with ASM Formule 3 alongside Paul di Resta, Giedo van der Garde and Sebastian Vettel. He took three podium positions in his debut season, coming eighth in the Drivers' Championship and first in the Rookie's Championship. Kobayashi also entered the Macau Grand Prix and the Masters of Formula 3, both of which are annual Formula Three events. Kobayashi started the latter in 10th place and finished the race a place lower in 11th while at the Macau Grand Prix, he started the race in pole position but finished in 19th place.

At the beginning of 2007, Kobayashi, along with Kohei Hirate, was named as one of the Toyota Formula One team's test drivers. He stayed in the F3 Euroseries for the upcoming season and had an impressive start to the season, taking two podiums in the first four rounds, and at the tenth round in Magny-Cours for the Formula One French Grand Prix Formula Three support race Kobayashi took his first race victory in Formula Three. Kobayashi finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship.

GP2

Kobayashi driving for DAMS at the Nürburgring round of the 2009 GP2 Series season

Following a successful GP2 Asia Series campaign in early 2008, Kobayashi won his first GP2 Series race in only the second race of the season. After a strong start from pole in the sprint race at the Circuit de Catalunya, Kamui took the chequered flag in first place. This was after a controversial piece of defensive driving from his former F3 Euroseries team-mate Romain Grosjean after a safety car period. At the end of the pit straight, Kamui attempted a pass on Grosjean. However, the Frenchman moved more than once to defend his position, forcing Kobayashi into evasive action. This resulted in a drive through penalty for the Frenchman, handing the win to Kobayashi. However, he only finished in the points on one further occasion, restricting him to sixteenth in the championship.

Another successful GP2 Asia campaign followed over the winter months of 2008 and 2009, with Kobayashi winning two races en route to the championship, with a round to spare. Kobayashi could not repeat his form in the main series, finishing sixteenth again.

Formula One (2007–present)

Toyota (2007–2009)

Kobayashi deputising for Timo Glock during practice for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix

On November 16, 2007 it was confirmed that Kobayashi would replace the departing Franck Montagny as the Toyota F1 team's third driver. He was employed as the team's test and reserve driver during the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

At the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix, Kobayashi competed in the first two free practice sessions in place of Timo Glock, who was unwell. Glock recovered in time to take part in the third free practice session and qualifying, but was injured after crashing in the latter session and had to miss the race. Toyota asked the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for permission to run Kobayashi in the race, but this was refused as the regulations state that a driver must run in at least one session on Saturday in order to be eligible to start the race.

Kobayashi did, however, make his Formula One debut at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix, following a complication to Glock's injury that was initially not detected. He qualified 11th in a chaotic qualifying session that lasted for over two and half hours and was red-flagged twice due to accidents caused by torrential rain. Early in the race, while running in sixth place, he held off the challenge of Jenson Button, who needed to finish well in order to clinch the world championship, for several laps. He finished the race in tenth place, and was later promoted to ninth when Heikki Kovalainen was penalised. Button jokingly described Kobayashi as "absolutely crazy, very aggressive". He also competed in the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as Glock's injury was not judged to have healed sufficiently. Kobayashi qualified 12th and finished sixth, scoring his first World Championship points, in the inaugural day-night race in Abu Dhabi. Before Toyota decided to withdraw from Formula One, Kobayashi was expected to be given a full-time seat at Toyota for the 2010 Formula One Season.

Sauber (2010–)

2010

Kobayashi driving for Sauber at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix

Kobayashi became another victim of the "Wall of Champions" at the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix

Following Toyota's withdrawal, Kobayashi faced an uncertain future, but was mentioned in lists of probable drivers for the series' new teams for 2010. After weeks of speculation, it was confirmed on December 17, 2009 that he would be driving for Peter Sauber's recovered Sauber team after BMW Sauber had withdrawn for 2010. His team-mate was former McLaren tester Pedro de la Rosa. Kobayashi completed his first laps in the new Sauber C29 chassis during F1 winter testing on 2 February.

During the Australian Grand Prix, a front wing failure on his Sauber caused him to hit the barrier, rebounding off it to cause a three-car crash taking out Nico Hülkenberg and Sébastien Buemi. In the next race in Malaysia he qualified in ninth place, his highest qualifying position to date in Formula One, however he suffered an engine failure early on in the race. In China, Kobayashi was involved in a three-way collision with Buemi and Vitantonio Liuzzi on the first lap, making him the only driver to retire from the first four races. In Turkey, he won his first points of the season coming home tenth after being promoted up a place due to Vettel's retirement after a collision with team-mate Webber and Petrov's puncture. In Valencia, he finished seventh by passing both Fernando Alonso and Sébastien Buemi in the final laps of the race on fresh tyres, after driving the majority of the race in third position on his first set of tyres. He followed that up with sixth place in Silverstone, eleventh in Germany, ninth in Hungary and eighth in Belgium.

At the Italian Grand Prix, Kobayashi suffered a gearbox failure and retired from the Singapore Grand Prix after hitting a track-side barrier. Kobayashi's team-mate changed in Singapore as Pedro de la Rosa was removed in favour of Nick Heidfeld. In Japan, Kobayashi qualified 14th and finished seventh, passing several drivers along the way including his team mate, in a very impressive fashion. He finished eighth in Korea and tenth in Brazil, eventually finishing the season with 32 points. In his review of the season, former TV commentator Murray Walker stated that Kobayashi is "without a doubt Japan's best [F1 driver] yet". Kobayashi gained a reputation during the season as a highly skilled overtaker, being able to outbrake drivers several car lengths in front of him. His aggressive overtaking style was described by Martin Brundle as, "He gets to the normal braking point and then goes, ‘Now, which one is the brake again? That’s right, it’s on the left,’ and he just sails past people!" He qualified well against his more experienced team-mates, outqualifying de la Rosa and Heidfeld 11 times to 8 over the season.

2011

Kobayashi at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Kobayashi remains with Sauber in 2011, where he is partnered by GP2 graduate Sergio Pérez. Kobayashi finished eighth in the season opening Australian Grand Prix, but he and Pérez – who had finished seventh – were disqualified after the race due to an irregularity with the car's rear-wing. The next race of the season in Malaysia was another strong showing for Kobayashi, finishing eighth in the race, eventually classified seventh after Lewis Hamilton received a penalty. He finished tenth in his next three races, before a career-high fifth place in an incident-packed Monaco Grand Prix. In an extremely wet Canadian Grand Prix, Kobayashi worked his way up from 13th place to 2nd having not decided to change to extreme wet tyres before the race was red-flagged, as many other drivers had. This essentially gave him a free pit stop while the race was suspended. After the restart, the track began to dry out, and after changing to intermediate tyres and finally slicks, Kobayashi dropped several places, including having a spin whilst lapping a backmarker and being rear-ended by Nick Heidfeld. He eventually finished seventh, 0.045 seconds behind Felipe Massa, who passed him on the final straight.

2012

On 28 July, it was announced that Kobayashi would remain with Sauber into the 2012 season, alongside team-mate Pérez.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2003	Formula Toyota	N/A	10	2	4	?	?	120	2nd
2004	Formula Renault 2000 Italy	Prema Powerteam	17	2	3	1	3	134	7th
	Formula Renault 2000 Germany		2	0	0	0	0	16	31st
	Formula Renault 2000 Netherlands		?	?	?	?	?	32	15th
	Asian Formula Renault Challenge	Asia Racing Team	1	0	0	?	0	16	31st
2005	Formula Renault Eurocup	Prema Powerteam	16	6	4	4	8	157	1st
	Formula Renault 2.0 Italy		15	6	9	8	11	312	1st
2006	Formula Three Euroseries	ASM Formule 3	19	0	0	1	3	34	8th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	1	0	0	N/A	19th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	11th
2007	Formula Three Euroseries	ASM Formule 3	20	1	1	0	7	59	4th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	13th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
	Formula One	Toyota Racing	Test driver
2008	GP2 Asia Series	DAMS	10	2	0	0	3	22	6th
	GP2 Series		20	1	0	2	1	10	16th
	Formula One	Toyota Racing	Test driver
2008–09	GP2 Asia Series	DAMS	11	2	2	3	4	56	1st
2009	GP2 Series	DAMS	20	0	0	0	1	13	16th
	Formula One	Panasonic Toyota Racing	2	0	0	0	0	3	18th
2010	Formula One	BMW Sauber	19	0	0	0	0	32	12th
2011	Formula One	Sauber F1 Team	19	0	0	0	0	30	12th

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series record

(key)

Yr	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2006	ASM Formule 3	Dallara F305/012	Mercedes	HOC 1 6	HOC 2 5	LAU 1 11	LAU 2 10	OSC 1 11	OSC 2 7	BRH 1 6	BRH 2 3	NOR 1 5	NOR 2 2	NÜR 1 8	NÜR 2 3	ZAN 1 5	ZAN 2 Ret	CAT 1 5	CAT 2 Ret	BUG 1 DNS	BUG 2 14	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 9	8th	34
2007	ASM Formule 3	Dallara F305/012	Mercedes	HOC1 1 10	HOC1 2 10	BRH 1 3	BRH 2 3	NOR 1 8	NOR 2 Ret	MAG 1 1	MAG 2 9	MUG 1 2	MUG 2 4	ZAN 1 2	ZAN 2 17	NÜR 1 11	NÜR 2 Ret	CAT 1 19	CAT 2 Ret	NOG 1 2	NOG 2 2	HOC2 1 4	HOC2 2 Ret	4th	59

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2008	DAMS	ESP FEA 8	ESP SPR 1	TUR FEA Ret	TUR SPR 9	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 18	FRA FEA Ret	FRA SPR 9	GBR FEA Ret	GBR SPR 7	GER FEA Ret	GER SPR 18	HUN FEA 11	HUN SPR 8	EUR FEA Ret	EUR SPR 6	BEL FEA 9	BEL SPR 14	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR 13	16th	10
2009	DAMS	ESP FEA 8	ESP SPR 5	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 12	TUR FEA Ret	TUR SPR NC	GBR FEA Ret	GBR SPR 17	GER FEA 9	GER SPR 3	HUN FEA 13	HUN SPR 8	VAL FEA 8	VAL SPR 11	BEL FEA 7	BEL SPR 11	ITA FEA 17	ITA SPR 17	POR FEA 6	POR SPR 19	16th	13

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2008	DAMS	DUB1 FEA 13	DUB1 SPR Ret	IDN FEA Ret	IDN SPR 15	MYS FEA 5	MYS SPR 1	BHR FEA 3	BHR SPR 1	DUB2 FEA 20	DUB2 SPR 14			6th	22
2008–09	DAMS	CHN FEA 2	CHN SPR Ret	DUB FEA 1	DUB SPR C	BHR1 FEA 1	BHR1 SPR 6	QAT FEA 4	QAT SPR 18	MYS FEA 2	MYS SPR 7	BHR2 FEA 4	BHR2 SPR 5	1st	56

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2009	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota TF109	Toyota RVX-09 2.4 V8	AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP	MON	TUR	GBR	GER	HUN	EUR	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN PO	BRA 9	ABU 6			18th	3
2010	BMW Sauber F1 Team	Sauber C29	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	BHR Ret	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	CHN Ret	ESP 12	MON Ret	TUR 10	CAN Ret	EUR 7	GBR 6	GER 11	HUN 9	BEL 8	ITA Ret	SIN Ret	JPN 7	KOR 8	BRA 10	ABU 14	12th	32
2011	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber C30	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS DSQ	MAL 7	CHN 10	TUR 10	ESP 10	MON 5	CAN 7	EUR 16	GBR Ret	GER 9	HUN 11	BEL 12	ITA Ret	SIN 14	JPN 13	KOR 15	IND Ret	ABU 10	BRA 9	12th	30

External links

• (Japanese) (English) Kamui Kobayashi official website

Sporting positions
Preceded by Pastor Maldonado	Italian Formula Renault champion 2005	Succeeded by Dani Clos
Preceded by Scott Speed	Eurocup Formula Renault champion 2005	Succeeded by Filipe Albuquerque
Preceded by Romain Grosjean	GP2 Asia Series champion 2008–09	Succeeded by Davide Valsecchi
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Kris Meeke	Autosport Awards Rookie Of The Year 2010	Succeeded by Paul di Resta