Kobayashi signs on to Sauber

[Roamy]

Interesting pick and will probably do very well.
no mention of fish or heidfield

[ArrowsFA1]

He deserves another chance after his feisty showings at the end of the year, but the cynic in me wonders whether we'll be seeing Panasonic on those Saubers in 2010.

[Roamy]

i would think you will see just that

[Storm]

Cynic or not Arrows, I think the lad showed enough talent to merit a seat in F1. If that also brings in some money to Sauber, why not?

[ArrowsFA1]

Absolutely :up: His drives in Brazil & Abu Dhabi were among the highlights of the year IMHO so he's in F1 on merit :s mokin: If Panasonic are supporting him then it's fully deserved.

[callum122]

Geez you guys are quick at breaking the news. Whats your source?

[ArrowsFA1]

Geez you guys are quick at breaking the news. Whats your source?
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80608

[UltimateDanGTR]

Absolutely :up: His drives in Brazil & Abu Dhabi were among the highlights of the year IMHO so he's in F1 on merit :s mokin: If Panasonic are supporting him then it's fully deserved.

agreed. I wish him luck, I think the guy has got talent and its only right that he should have a full season or more to show his talent.

[callum122]

thank you Arrows

[Sonic]

BOSH! Good on him. Now my only problem for next year is who to support? Kobay at Sauber? Nico at Merc? Lotus? Or keep waving my williams flag? I'll just be greedy and support all 4! :D

[Saint Devote]

agreed. I wish him luck, I think the guy has got talent and its only right that he should have a full season or more to show his talent.

Not denying his showing was reasonable aside from the f3 style weaving under braking which led to Nakajima's heavy crash in Interlagos - but maybe Sauber needs sponsorship.

Kobayashi as far as we know has Panasonic sponsorship and that perhaps Suaber has no significant sponsor for 2010?

The question is which experienced driver will be signed - if any.

There are a host of GP2 drivers before Kobayashi that deserve a seat in f1 on their showings namely Petrov for one.

[V12]

As others have said really, good luck to the lad and he deserves another shot on the back of his two showings this year, and if it helps Sauber's finances next year as well then good for them. I think the days of your Deletraz, Lavaggis, even Yoongs and Ides are behind us now, "pay" drivers tend to be at worst competent (by F1 standards)

[wedge]

Not denying his showing was reasonable aside from the f3 style weaving under braking which led to Nakajima's heavy crash in Interlagos - but maybe Sauber needs sponsorship.

Incident was just after the 200m board

The braking zone is under 100m

Naka arguably was at fault for mis-timing his move

Ktg2avZ93RY

[gloomyDAY]

I'm glad Kamui won't be working in his father's sushi restaurant.

Can you imagine F1 without a Japanese driver or manufacturer?
When was the last time that even happened?

[V12]

I'm glad Kamui won't be working in his father's sushi restaurant.

Can you imagine F1 without a Japanese driver or manufacturer?
When was the last time that even happened?

The first half of 1983, before Honda arrived first with Spirit then quickly jumping to Williams. Or 1982 if you're talking about a full season, before I was even born (!). There was no "official" manufacturer representation from 1993-1999 either, but you had Mugen as an engine builder, and the likes of Katayama and Takagi racing.

[jens]

It's difficult to judge Kobayashi's talent based in two races, but a full season at Sauber will surely give a good chance of evaluation, especially if his team-mate happens to be a certain Heidfeld, who has already been paired with several talented rookies in the past.

[Giuseppe F1]

Is Kamui taking Panasonic and KDDI to Sauber with him I wonder?

[El Libertador]

Great! Now he's in the Ferrari B team. Watch out, Nando ;)

Kidding aside, I'm really glad to see Kamui land a seat for 2010. We haven't seen much of him, but I have no reason to believe from those two races that he can't get the job done. Beating Heidfeld will be a nice challenge for him and I imagine he has the ability to be successful with it.

Certainly an easy combination to support.

[VkmSpouge]

That is good news. Kamui Kobayashi deserves a full season in F1, I hope he has a good 2010.


Can you imagine F1 without a Japanese driver or manufacturer?
When was the last time that even happened?

Last time F1 was without a Japanese driver was 2001.

[ioan]

Great news!

[DazzlaF1]

That is good news. Kamui Kobayashi deserves a full season in F1, I hope he has a good 2010.

Last time F1 was without a Japanese driver was 2001.

I agree, his efforts in the last 2 races earn't him a full season with someone, if Peter Sauber can get Heidfeld ro re-sign for 2010, he has a pretty good drver pairing that can at best challenge for strong points finishes.

[airshifter]

Great news to hear. I think he earned it. :)

[Saint Devote]

As others have said really, good luck to the lad and he deserves another shot on the back of his two showings this year, and if it helps Sauber's finances next year as well then good for them. I think the days of your Deletraz, Lavaggis, even Yoongs and Ides are behind us now, "pay" drivers tend to be at worst competent (by F1 standards)

Motor racing history will lead you to rethink your pay driver comment. But question is - is Kobayashi a "pay driver?"

Time will tell. Does he have Panasonic money? How much? Is this the reason Sauber hired him?

He certainly is not amongst the deserving drivers from the main GP2 series to be in f1.

[Roamy]

Motor racing history will lead you to rethink your pay driver comment. But question is - is Kobayashi a "pay driver?"
.

Is a 6 pound Robin fat????

[Rollo]

Slow down everyone.

Panasonic has had ties with Toyota since 2001, some 8 years before Kobayashi was even remotely involved with the team. Also, Panasonic is part of the Matsua Electronics Group which is part of a zaibatsu along with Toyota and several other companies.
Kobayashi has never personally been involved with Panasonic and in 2008 was driving for DAMS.

It's fair to say that he's got there by talent and possibly through DAMS's Mecachrome connections rather than Panasonic.

[Storm]

but maybe Sauber needs sponsorship.
obviously.



There are a host of GP2 drivers before Kobayashi that deserve a seat in f1 on their showings namely Petrov for one.
on their showings IN Formula 1?
Kobayashi did quite well in his 2 GP starts..and hence the mention of his deserving of a seat for a season atleast.

[Wasted Talent]

Not denying his showing was reasonable aside from the f3 style weaving under braking which led to Nakajima's heavy crash in Interlagos - but maybe Sauber needs sponsorship.



Agree - that incident was a disgrace - Nakajima was lucky it didn't turn out very badly........

WT

[millencolin]

fantastic news!!! It's good to see a driver with that 'never say die' attitude, he took no crap from nobady last year and provided some of the best racing of the season.

good stuff...

[VkmSpouge]

He certainly is not amongst the deserving drivers from the main GP2 series to be in f1.

But he's certainly amongst the deserving drivers from F1 2009 to be in F1 2010.

[Garry Walker]

Motor racing history will lead you to rethink your pay driver comment. But question is - is Kobayashi a "pay driver?"

Time will tell. Does he have Panasonic money? How much? Is this the reason Sauber hired him?

He certainly is not amongst the deserving drivers from the main GP2 series to be in f1.

Well, Kovalainen was deserving of an F1 seat after his GP2 performances, but in F1 he has been a failure.


Great news for Kamui, hopefully he will have a good season.

[ioan]

But he's certainly amongst the deserving drivers from F1 2009 to be in F1 2010.

Very well put! :)

[Garry Walker]

But he's certainly amongst the deserving drivers from F1 2009 to be in F1 2010.

No no no. He performed badly in GP2, that is all that matters. Everything else, everything he did in F1, all irrelevant. Only GP2 matters.

The real reason why Saint Devote is not too happy about this is that his hero button was held up by Kamui for a long time at Brazil and Button cried his eyes out.

[ioan]

The real reason why Saint Devote is not too happy about this is that his hero button was held up by Kamui for a long time at Brazil and Button cried his eyes out.

Yep, it was funny to hear the chump complaining and asking for the race director to remove one of his direct competitors!
Certainly a worthy chimp. :D

[Garry Walker]

Yep, it was funny to hear the chump complaining and asking for the race director to remove one of his direct competitors!
Certainly a worthy chimp. :D

Yeah. That sort of behaviour I would rather expect from a teenage girl, not from an adult male taking part in the leading racing series of the world.

But then again, a teenage girl is probably more of a man than Button is anyway.

[gloomyDAY]

Yep, it was funny to hear the chump complaining and asking for the race director to remove one of his direct competitors!
Certainly a worthy chimp. :D


Yeah. That sort of behaviour I would rather expect from a teenage girl, not from an adult male taking part in the leading racing series of the world.

But then again, a teenage girl is probably more of a man than Button is anyway. :laugh:

[wedge]

But then again, a teenage girl is probably more of a man than Button is anyway.

Princess Massa:

1gj0sph32i8


Slow down everyone.

Panasonic has had ties with Toyota since 2001, some 8 years before Kobayashi was even remotely involved with the team. Also, Panasonic is part of the Matsua Electronics Group which is part of a zaibatsu along with Toyota and several other companies.
Kobayashi has never personally been involved with Panasonic and in 2008 was driving for DAMS.

It's fair to say that he's got there by talent and possibly through DAMS's Mecachrome connections rather than Panasonic.

Or that Peter Sauber has a history of giving young drivers a chance


Motor racing history will lead you to rethink your pay driver comment. But question is - is Kobayashi a "pay driver?"

Time will tell. Does he have Panasonic money? How much? Is this the reason Sauber hired him?

He certainly is not amongst the deserving drivers from the main GP2 series to be in f1.

Judging by CV then you can say the same of Alonso, Raikkonen, Button, Mansell, Hill

Schumi was initially a pay driver. Never did him any harm.

[F1boat]

IMO Kamui was driving very dangerous at Brazil and was a menace for his colleagues. He was better at Abu Dhabi, however. I hope that we won't have another kamikaze for next year, however.

[ioan]

IMO Kamui was driving very dangerous at Brazil and was a menace for his colleagues.

Based on the chimps cries?

[Malbec]

Time will tell. Does he have Panasonic money? How much? Is this the reason Sauber hired him?

He certainly is not amongst the deserving drivers from the main GP2 series to be in f1.

I'm surprised that someone with your obviously rich experience of motorsport isn't aware that Kobayashi wasn't in a good GP2 team due to lack of funding, so if anything his performance in that series is not necessarily a good indicator of his inherent skills.

Not everyone has the financial backing of Rosberg or Hamilton to be smoothly inserted into a slick operation like ART.

I wouldn't read too much into his GP2 performances although for me the jury is still out, I haven't seen enough of him to see whether he's the real deal or just lucky in 2 races.

[Malbec]

Panasonic has had ties with Toyota since 2001, some 8 years before Kobayashi was even remotely involved with the team. Also, Panasonic is part of the Matsua Electronics Group which is part of a zaibatsu along with Toyota and several other companies.

Matsua is a zaibatsu but is not part of or co-owned with Toyota, they are two entirely separate companies. They do have close links though and cooperate a lot, just as Honda and Sony do.

Still, I agree, I think its too early to say Panasonic sponsors Kobayashi. When Toyota withdrew Panasonic declared it was going to withdraw from F1, some sponsors are only in F1 because their partners ask them 'nicely'. Ford and HSBC are another example. I suspect Kobayashi brings money from other sources though I don't know which.

Had any other team taken on Kobayashi I'd be a bit sceptical but Peter Sauber has history of taking a risk on rookies and being right. I wish him good luck.

[wedge]

IMO Kamui was driving very dangerous at Brazil and was a menace for his colleagues. He was better at Abu Dhabi, however. I hope that we won't have another kamikaze for next year, however.

He did nothing wrong.

He did his one move to block. Naka was too dumb not to use the outside cf. Nigel Mansell overtaking Berger in Mexico.

[Saint Devote]

He did nothing wrong.

He did his one move to block. Naka was too dumb not to use the outside cf. Nigel Mansell overtaking Berger in Mexico.

Times have changed.

And Kobayashi did do that which is not in line with today's rules. It was why the FIA stewards warned Toyota at Interlagos.

It is f1 and not f3. It was Nakajima that did nothing wrong.

If Kobayashi does not learn from this then his f1 career is likely to be brief.

[airshifter]

Times have changed.

And Kobayashi did do that which is not in line with today's rules. It was why the FIA stewards warned Toyota at Interlagos.

It is f1 and not f3. It was Nakajima that did nothing wrong.

If Kobayashi does not learn from this then his f1 career is likely to be brief.

A warning and a penalty aren't quite the same thing are they? Even your wonder boy Jenson has suffered penalties, yet you condemn Kobay for a warning?

You don't demand attention in a couple races to get a ride in F1 without showing some driving skills. I'm sure Nakajima assumed that the new driver would yeild to a bad move, just as Jenson assumed the new driver wouldn't make him outbrake himself in the following race.

Both were wrong, and Kobay has a ride.

[leopard]

The whole performance of of drivers can't be pictured only by one or two races, but it's enough to tell us roughly about the talent. We might notice the likes of Rosberg, Heikki (although doesn't much improve until today ;) ) greatly struggle in their first season in the sport. I get feeling Kamui is not much worse, on the other hand he might perform slightly better than them both. Great news

[Hondo]

Motor racing history will lead you to rethink your pay driver comment. But question is - is Kobayashi a "pay driver?"

Time will tell. Does he have Panasonic money? How much? Is this the reason Sauber hired him?

He certainly is not amongst the deserving drivers from the main GP2 series to be in f1.

"not amongst the deserving drivers from the main GP2 series to be in f1"

No, he's just an F1 rookie that got thrown into the fray for a couple of real, live F1 races during a very competative season and did quite well for himself and his team.

I'd say that makes him deserving.

[wedge]

Times have changed.

And Kobayashi did do that which is not in line with today's rules. It was why the FIA stewards warned Toyota at Interlagos.

It is f1 and not f3. It was Nakajima that did nothing wrong.

If Kobayashi does not learn from this then his f1 career is likely to be brief.

No they haven't.

Only difference between now and then is the silly one block move.

Why on earth did Naka continue to go for the inside line when it was very blatant that Koby had that line covered. Why did Naka not try the outside line?

[ioan]

Times have changed.

And Kobayashi did do that which is not in line with today's rules.

Please quote the rules Kobayashi broke.

[Mia 01]

This is good for Koby, but F1 is now all´about MS (and Kimi).

[Garry Walker]

Please quote the rules Kobayashi broke.

I will do it.

FIA RULEBOOK (SAINT DEVOTE & "BARMY ARMY" EDITION)
§1 Thou shall let Jenson Button pass you at once when he appears in your mirrors

[airshifter]

I'm glad to see Kobay get a ride. In just a couple of races he proved that he won't be intimidated and can run with the others.

[Mia 01]

Kobny is a driver with no fear, but he´s not a good driver.

[gloomyDAY]

Kobny is a driver with no fear, but he´s not a good driver.Don't you think you're jumping the gun?

Kamui hasn't even had a full season of F1. I remember everyone on this board calling Vettel all sorts of names after crashing into the back of Webber during the 2007 Japanese GP. Now, Vettel beat him on the track and in equal cars.

Let's just wait and see...

[Mia 01]

Don't you think you're jumping the gun?

Kamui hasn't even had a full season of F1. I remember everyone on this board calling Vettel all sorts of names after crashing into the back of Webber during the 2007 Japanese GP. Now, Vettel beat him on the track and in equal cars.

Let's just wait and see...

You have a point. But I´m judging from what I could see on the track, so far.

[ioan]

I will do it.

FIA RULEBOOK (SAINT DEVOTE & "BARMY ARMY" EDITION)
§1 Thou shall let Jenson Button pass you at once when he appears in your mirrors

:rotflmao: :up:

[Sonic]

Well the general opinion seems to be pleasure at seeing Kobay rewarded for his ballsy rookie drives (slightly reminisant of Eddie Irvine's debut GP's), the bigger question is what kind of car will he be riding? Can Sauber do a Brawn and rise from the ashes of BMW or will Sauber return to the mid-field.

[ioan]

Well the general opinion seems to be pleasure at seeing Kobay rewarded for his ballsy rookie drives (slightly reminisant of Eddie Irvine's debut GP's), the bigger question is what kind of car will he be riding? Can Sauber do a Brawn and rise from the ashes of BMW or will Sauber return to the mid-field.

Did Sauber get as much money (more than any F1 car has ever cost before) and help like Brawn got from Honda?
It didn't look like that to me.
So why should they be compared to Brawn?

[Sonic]

Every team rebirth from here on out will always be compared to Brawn. Now it is as you say unlikely any team will ever get the leg up that Brawn GP got last year but that wasn't what I was wondering about. I'm hoping that the new Sauber is significantly better than the bodge job that was the 2009 BMW.

[jens]

As Kobayashi's GP2 performances have been highlighter here, it is worth mentioning that Kamui has got a bit lucky. If Glock hadn't been injured, no-one would have even considered Koba as any kind of a decent talent based on GP2 performances and other teams besides already withdrawn Toyota don't have his testing data either to analyze, how could he perform in an F1 car.

[Sonic]

As Kobayashi's GP2 performances have been highlighter here, it is worth mentioning that Kamui has got a bit lucky. If Glock hadn't been injured, no-one would have even considered Koba as any kind of a decent talent based on GP2 performances and other teams besides already withdrawn Toyota don't have his testing data either to analyze, how could he perform in an F1 car.

You could probably come up with a very long list of drivers who based on junior formulae did not deserve a shot and ended up doing rather well - I dare say Nigel Mansell would be at the top of that list, and he did ok for himself.

[ioan]

As Kobayashi's GP2 performances have been highlighter here, it is worth mentioning that Kamui has got a bit lucky. If Glock hadn't been injured, no-one would have even considered Koba as any kind of a decent talent based on GP2 performances and other teams besides already withdrawn Toyota don't have his testing data either to analyze, how could he perform in an F1 car.

Just think about how Schumacher got into F1.