Heart & speed
11th March 2011 was the final day of Formula One testing ahead of last season. It was also the day a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. The Sauber F1 Team’s Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi was in Barcelona, sitting in his car for the final race simulation. “At first I couldn’t take in the scale of what I was seeing and hearing,” he recalls. Kamui was nine years old when the Kobe earthquake struck. Concern for his country and a deep sense of responsibility to make every effort to help stayed with the 25-year-old throughout his second season in Formula One. The Japanese Grand Prix was preceded by the national anthem sung by a girls’ choir from Fukushima who Kobayashi had invited to the event. It was an emotional high point and tugged at the heartstrings of millions watching on TV around the world. “I knew that Formula One gives me the platform to send a message around the world,” says the young Japanese driver. He can rest assured that the message was heard.
But it wasn’t only Kamui’s home country that had pinned its hopes on him in 2011. He was also asked to take on leadership responsibilities within the Sauber F1 Team in what was only his second full season in Formula One. After being crowned the leading rookie in Formula One himself in 2010, he lined up alongside another newcomer in 2011 in the shape of Sergio Pérez. “It wasn’t always easy for me,” Kamui concedes, “especially as the Pirelli tyres were new for both the engineers and myself. But I learnt a great deal and am stronger for the experience.”
Unfortunately, an aspect of F1 in which he excelled suddenly found its importance significantly diminished in 2011. Kobayashi’s widely admired overtaking skill was devalued by the advent of the Drag Reduction System (DRS), which resulted in drivers changing places left, right and centre. The adjustable rear wing allows drivers less gifted in the art of overtaking to pull off passing moves, but Kobayashi would never use this reality to bolster his own case. “It’s the same for everyone,” he said. And for him, the matter is closed.
Sunny side
Among his team-mates, Kobayashi is respected for his commitment and frankness – and positively adored for his cheerful, easygoing nature. The delight he takes in the smallest things even conjures a smile on the faces of the toughest guys. The first thing he unfailingly does when he arrives at a race track is dash to the garage and the kitchen to greet everyone.
While Kobayashi is partial to many Japanese dishes, raw fish is not among them. He grew up with sushi but can’t abide it. His father ran a sushi restaurant in Amagasaki, west of Osaka. When the business was rebuilt after the 1995 earthquake, it was as a delivery service. Neither his parents nor his older brother or younger sister share Kamui Kobayashi’s passion for racing. He was already pestering his father for a set of wheels as a young lad. At the age of nine, his wish was finally granted: with provisional backing from his father and Yamaha, he entered the Japanese kart racing scene. His success there was the passport into Toyota’s Juneor development programme and to Europe.
Europe
In 2004, aged 17, Kobayashi moved to Italy to compete in Formula Renault. “Toyota fixed me up with an apartment and gave me a lot of support,” he gratefully recalls. But when it came to day-to-day living, he was left to his own devices. With Japanese his only language, he had problems in the supermarket telling shampoo from washing-up liquid. “Every day was a challenge,” he remembers with a grin, “and the Italians were so very different from the Japanese. In some ways we are more like the Germans – very punctual and very proper. But I liked the Italian way of life from the word go.” Wasn’t loneliness a problem? “Sometimes it was tough, but I knew what I wanted. If I was going to become a racing driver, I was in the right place.”
Today the right place remains more important than a permanent home, but fortunately Kobayashi seems to be a born globetrotter. Indeed, for several months in 2011 he had no apartment of his own and lived out of a suitcase. He has now found himself a home in Monaco, but a beach or a city with plenty of nightlife anywhere in the world can also be “the right place” – Kamui Kobayashi is somebody who enjoys life. Meanwhile, back at the race track, he consistently pays homage to his native country: his helmet is dominated by the colour red found at the centre of the Japanese flag.
Upwards and onwards
Two thousand and five saw him win the Italian Formula Renault as well as the series’ Eurocup. Only Felipe Massa had previously won both titles in a single year. That success paved the way for the Formula 3 Euro Series and, at the end of the year, an appearance in Macau, where he secured pole position on the highly challenging track and won the qualifying race – along with a confidence boost. In 2007, a win at Magny-Cours in France and further podium places earned him fourth place overall in the Formula 3 Euro Series, and with it promotion. By the end of 2007, Toyota had already signed him on as their Formula One reserve driver for 2008.
Alongside this Kobayashi contested the 2008 and 2009 GP2 Series in Asia and Europe. It didn’t take him long to claim his first win in the European GP2, and in the winter of 2008/2009 he ran away with the GP2 Asia title. The disappointment was accordingly great when he failed to build on this success in the Mayn GP2 Series in 2009. “If I hadn’t had the opportunity to stand in for Timo Glock at Toyota, my career might have been over at that point,” says Kobayashi.
When he climbed into Glock’s Toyota cockpit for free practice in Suzuka on 2nd October 2009, seven months had elapsed since the last time he had sat in a Formula One racing car. Two weeks on, and Kobayashi was lining up for his first grand prix. At his debut race in Interlagos he finished ninth (11th in qualifying), just short of the points-scoring positions. At the season finale in Abu Dhabi he qualified 12th, distinguished himself as the best of the drivers on a one-stop strategy, and took away three points for a sixth-place finish. In both races it was his combative skills that stood out, while in Abu Dhabi he also displayed his astuteness in implementing a race strategy. Peter Sauber has a keen eye for burgeoning talent and made his move. The Japanese rookie did not disappoint in the 2010 season and, notwithstanding a number of technical retirements, secured a haul of 32 World Championship points.
In 2011 Kobayashi recorded the team’s best result of the season, finishing fifth in the Monaco GP. The first half of the season also yielded a pair of seventh places and his best qualifying performance of eighth. The team’s progress then stalled as they endured a difficult period on a technical level. However, the Japanese driver was still able to pick up two World Championship points in Brazil to end the season on a positive note. The Interlagos result meant he finished with 30 points and in 12th place once again in the drivers’ standings.
