How much do you really know about Kamui Kobayashi?
Following the retirement of Alex Wurz, Toyota Gazoo Racing moved quickly to fill the breach by promoting test and reserve driver Kamui Kobayashi to race the No.6 Toyota TS050 HYBRID alongside Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin. But just how much do we know about the Toyota LMP1 new-boy?
A mega-star in his Japanese homeland, 29-year-old Kobayashi actually began his F1 career with Toyota, replacing the injured Timo Glock at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix and scoring his first points for sixth place at the following race in Abu Dhabi. In all, Kobayashi competed in 76 Grands Prix and became one of only three Japanese drivers to have stood on a Formula One podium, at Suzuka in 2012.
Kobayashi has been a Toyota-affiliated driver since 2004, when he signed with the Toyota Driver Academy. After demonstrating promise in Formula Renault, Kobayashi was given a chance in Formula 3 for 2006 and impressed on his first time out at the Macau Grand Prix by qualifying on pole and winning the qualifying race. However, he was unable to complete the job in the main event, as contact with competitors on the run down to the tight right-hander at Lisboa allowed none other than new team-mate Conway, then the British F3 champion, to take full advantage.
Whilst this will be Kobayashi’s first time competing in the LMP1 category, he isn’t completely new to the FIA World Endurance Championship. Finding himself without an F1 drive in 2013, Kobayashi was picked up by Ferrari to race alongside Toni Vilander in LMGTE Pro and made an instant impression at Silverstone by taking second on his debut. Kobayashi would go on to score three further podiums at Spa, COTA and Bahrain, and finished best of the Ferraris in fifth at a rain-hit Le Mans 24 Hours.
Something we don’t know, and what Kobayashi won’t even know himself, is where Toyota will stand relative to Porsche and Audi, following a disappointing 2015 for the marque which produced only two podium finishes at Silverstone and Bahrain. Make sure you’re watching Round One of the WEC, the 6 Hours of Silverstone on Sunday 17th April, to find out!
James Newbold
