Favorite Coach Race Drivers: Kamui Kobayashi Car News

The brief was simple. An email to all journalists on Autocar: choose your favorite racing driver of all time.

What we weren’t expecting was a whole repertoire of answers that came back. Covering most eras and a wide spectrum of sport – from Formula 1 to club racing – it shows how diverse motorsport and its followers are. For once, there are no wrong answers: it has sparked a lot of discussion and quite a bit of disbelief, but in the end, it’s all about personal choice.

Do you agree with us? Would you like to choose someone different? Let us know in the comments below.

Kamui Kobayashi

Timo Glock crashed so badly during qualifying for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix that he was still not fit to race a fortnight later when Formula 1 arrived in Brazil. Toyota therefore had to call in its reserve driver, Kamui Kobayashi, 23.

He had just finished 16th in the GP2 Championship for the second season in a row, so I assumed he was simply the last in a long line of drivers who had been raised above their natural station by Honda and Toyota in desperation for a hero at home.

How wrong I was. Kobayashi immediately caught my attention with his thorough driving style and sealed the deal for a wide-eyed schoolboy watching his first F1 season with his passionate sixth-place defense of Jenson Button, who was extremely suspicious in the race. On title. Button described Kobayashi as “absolutely crazy and very aggressive” after the race; I agreed, and that’s precisely why I instantly found myself a new favorite F1 driver.

A solid sixth place finish in the season finale convinced Sauber to enter Kobayashi for 2010 after Toyota left the sport, and I was relieved. Shining on a massive crash in the first race of the year, he continued to embody my enthusiasm with his banzai “ overtaking ” on extremely late braking, as Martin Brundle dubbed them, especially at the Suzuka hairpin. .

Suzuka was also the scene of his greatest moment in F1, in 2012: a superb third place. I can still hear the enthusiastic Japanese crowd chanting “Kamui! Kamui! »Throughout the podium ceremony.

While not particularly a man in the spotlight, Kobayashi has always come across as a humble, good-natured, and utterly decent type whenever he was in the public eye. It’s just another reason I couldn’t have been happier to see my childhood racing hero blossom in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship, reunited with Toyota, culminating in the title. last year.