Kamui
Kobayashi

Kamui Kobayashi was born on 13 September 1986 in Amagasaki, in Hyogo Prefecture. He started karting in 1996, aged nine, and won four titles over the following years. In 2004 he joined the Toyota driver academy. In single-seaters he took titles in Italian and European Formula Renault, was the top rookie in the 2006 Formula 3 Euro Series and finished fourth overall in 2007. He placed sixteenth in GP2 in both 2008 and 2009, and won the GP2 Asia title in the winter of 2008/09. At Toyota he served as test and reserve driver in 2008 and 2009.

He made his Formula One debut at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix, deputising for the injured Timo Glock. Early in the race he ran sixth and held Jenson Button behind him for several laps. He crossed the line tenth and was promoted to ninth after a penalty for Heikki Kovalainen. His second start came in Abu Dhabi, where he finished sixth. Following Toyota's withdrawal from Formula One, he moved to Sauber for 2010.

He stayed at Sauber until the end of 2012 and finished twelfth in the championship in each of those three years. In 2010 he scored 32 points, including points finishes in Valencia and Japan. In 2011 he was fifth in Monaco and seventh in Canada, just 0.045 seconds behind Felipe Massa. In 2012 he was fourth in Germany and qualified second in Belgium. In Japan he finished third. It was his only podium, and it made him the first Japanese driver on the podium at his home race since Aguri Suzuki in 1990. He ended that season with 60 points. For 2013 Sauber announced a different driver line-up.

In 2013 Kobayashi raced for AF Corse in the World Endurance Championship and was fifth in the GTE-Pro class at Le Mans. In 2014 he returned to Formula One with Caterham and finished 22nd in the standings. He started 15 races that year. In total he made 75 Formula One starts.

He then raced in Super Formula and, from 2016, for Toyota in the World Endurance Championship. In 2021 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans from pole position with Mike Conway and José María López. With them he was endurance world champion in 2019/20 and 2021, and he also won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019 and 2020. At the end of 2021 Toyota announced that he would also lead its WEC programme. In June 2025 he tested a Haas Formula One car at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Source: Wikipedia, “Kamui Kobayashi”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.