November 2, 2009

Why Kamui Kobayashi may be the most important man in F1

Without a doubt Kamui Kobayashi's has had the most exciting debut in Formula 1 for a long, long time. How was that for complete refusal to be intimidated combined with impressive consistency?

After his first F1 race in Brazil, Kamui had been pidgenholed by a lot of media who talked about his, open your book of clichés, "kamikaze" move on Nakajima usually without mentioning Mark Webber had made precisely the same move on Kimi Raikkonen (what, he gets no "Crocodile Dundee" comments?).

Button slammed him for daring not to let him through without a fight ("he moved in the braking zone, GP2 stuff") and irony of ironies in the very next race, the two had another date on track....



Entertainment value aside, even David Couthard had to admit that based on his two race performance Kobayashi had earned a place in F1 for next season. Compare that with the debut of the much touted Roman Grojean or Jaime Alguersauri or even, one step up , Sebastian Buemi not to mention Piquet Jr. last year.

A viable Japanese contender would be huge for Formula 1, huge for attracting new sources of sponsorship at a time when F1 is not even sure where it will get its tires from after next season.

Go Kamui!



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21 comments:

  1. As I posted on another blog... McLaren should sign him immediately! hehehehe

    My wife and I were cheering and high-fiving when he made his beautiful pass on Button. Great stuff!

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  2. I sure hope that kobayashi gets a seat next year.

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  3. Kobayashi will get a seat where the Toyota engine goes.

    Buemi will be a stable driver who needs a better car.

    Aguersauri needs to figure out which one is the right pit first.

    Grojean need to try harder on Playstation first.

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  4. Agree on the McLaren comment. It makes ton of sense for them to sign him, specially now that Merc is shying away from Woking (Jap brands are still the largest manufacturers in the world and they will be all back in F1 sooner or later - Rebirth of McLaren Honda in 2014). Also, now in the middle of their big launch into the SportCar business, a large Japanese market presence (through - name any Japan multinational - megabuck sponsorship) can only help.

    C'mon

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  5. Alguersuari not Aguersauri.

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  6. Oh and I apologize in advance in case the lyrics to the song are wildly inappropriate but it's the only j-pop song I had :o)

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  7. I think in light of it being the last race of the year where some were fighting for their jobs he really did great under that kind of pressure.......

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  8. KOBAYASHI!!! You have to give the kid real credit for pressing Button so smoothly and leaving it up to him to make the mistake. No fishy business getting pushed off the track. Just plain and simple makin the other guy get in over his head!

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  9. I eat that Sh*t like Kobiyashi! He is my favorite racer of the moment. He is the real deal and is going to make the races fun to watch!

    E

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  10. I love this guy. He was the highlight of the last 2 races in my opinion. So much for taking a whole season to learn the ropes (ALG,GRO,PIQ,etc.). He raised the bar for rookies and I think he showed that the "overtaking issues" in F1 are more driver-related than people thought. Toyota must give him a seat.

    -allenr

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  11. The man is great to watch on the racetrack. Very impressed with his races so far.

    Plus you have to give the credit, any man that can eat 64 Nathan's hot dogs in 10 min and can handle 5 g's in a turn, is my hero :)

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  12. Button did good to let him past, Kobi was lighter and obviously faster at this point in the race. Why should Button put up a fight and thus lose lots of time defending lap after lap, instead let the faster car by who he wasn't racing for ultimate race position in the first place and instead run fast trouble free laps that resulted in him getting 3rd. Shows Buttons maturity as a driver, a younger driver would have wasted time battling someone for nothing but ego.

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  13. Yeah Button sure let him past by blocking the inside the whole way down the straightaway... then blowing the corner.

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  14. Oh hell yeah, I want a Kobayashi T-shirt for next season! Bring on 2010.

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  15. HAHAHA Pete is referring of course to this ---> Kobayashi performance

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  16. I'm impressed. considering I really do have this feeling that he's the real deal in F1

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  17. I think it was the most spectacular overtake of the season. Theory applied to practice. Perfect work by the young jap!

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  18. Toyota is set to announce its future on november 8th and they could still withdraw from the sport. Kobayashi has admitted he has no budget to fall back on a GP2 season and will have to go work in his fathers sushi place, as he did two moths ago.

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  19. All of which makes the story even better...

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  20. If this guy doesn't find a seat compared to a Heikki or Grosjean or a number of other drivers then I'd be very surprised. In an inferior car he blew by a world champion - that takes a lot of natural talent.

    After all, in two races he's earned more points than most drivers over the whole season.

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  21. kobay is a breath of fresh air. defends beautifully in brazil and passing heroically here. kids exciting to watch

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