Kobayashi

[DexDexter]

JPM also had the misfortune to be in F1 when Ferrari/Schumacher were in their purple patch... I miss Juan Pablo.

What's there to miss? Montoya had a top car for his whole career and won some races and crashed some. Good driver but not a memorable one. These new heroes are better, more committed and in better physical shape. Talking about Kobayashi, to me he is getting better and better and is by far the best Japanese driver we've ever seen.

[Cooper_S]

Talking about Kobayashi, to me he is getting better and better and is by far the best Japanese driver we've ever seen.

I recall an expression that goes along the lines of... In the land of the blind the one eyed man is King...

Long live King Kobayashi

[steveaki13]

Kobayashi is the best Japanese driver yet, mind you the rest weren't great with exception of Sato, he was OK. Not great just OK.

K. Nakajima 2007-2009 36GPs
Sato 2002-2008 93GPs
Yamamoto 2006-2010 21GPs
Ide 2006 4GPs
Takagi 1998-1999 32GPs
Nakano 1997-1998 33GPs
Inoue 1994-1995 18GPs
Noda 1994 3GPs
T. Suzuki 1993 2GPs
Hattori 1992 2GPs (0 Starts)
Katayama 1992-1997 97GPs
S. Nakajima 1987-1991 80 GPs
A. Suzuki 1988-1995 88GPs
Takahara 1976-77 2GPs
Takahashi 1977 1GP
Kuwashima 1976 1 GP
Hasemi 1976 1 GP
Hoshino 1975-1976 2 GPs
Fushida 1975 2 GPs

[N. Jones]

Fortunately for Kobayashi qualifying counts less in modern (2011) F1 than it did in the past and his qualifying results don't really seem to have much effect on his overall race results.



Leaving driving characteristics aside, Montoya achieved 7 wins in his career, so I think it would be quite a good career if Kobayashi reached that far. But JPM also had the luxury of spending the whole of his F1 career in top teams - let's see if Kamui can get close to that many good opportunities.

I can agree with that. I am just saying that JPM could have been so much more had he been consistent....

[N. Jones]

JPM also had the misfortune to be in F1 when Ferrari/Schumacher were in their purple patch... I miss Juan Pablo.

Juan was leading the championship in 2003 (he and Ralf were winning races in the middle of the season and for a while they looked unbeatable) and lost the lead.
So even though Chewbacca and Ferrari were tops they were vulnerable in '03.

[Rollo]

Kobayashi is the best Japanese driver yet, mind you the rest weren't great with exception of Sato, he was OK. Not great just OK.

S. Nakajima 1987-1991 80 GPs

Nakajima was blessed with having unreliable cars including as Piquet said of the Lotus 100T: "Perhaps one of the more disappointing cars I drove"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tI1eF1_LZs

If Nakajima had followed the Honda engines to McLaren instead of Senna, then his career might have panned out differently. I also wonder what would have happened to Honda had they entered in 1993... probably not much.

[Malbec]

Yes, Kamui's (slight?) problem might be that he is not part of anyone's junior programme. He was part of Toyota, but they pulled out. I think he was actually a bit fortunate that he managed to step into F1 juuust right before the exit of Toyota, without that his career would have ended completely without getting noticed and only Toyota people would have known, how good he is (based on tests, simulator, etc).

Anyway... It seems like a common view that Ricciardo/Vergne are the future of RBR, di Resta and Hülkenberg are now both related to Mercedes, Ferrari has its own drivers as well as Renault/Genii/Lotus, etc. His main hope is that the drivers of those programmes turn out not to be good enough (meaning: he has to beat Pérez or whoever is paired with him), so he can convince that he is a better long-term bet than any of their own men.

Current rumours are that Kobayashi is due to replace Webber for the second seat at RBR. Vettel was even asked directly in an interview on formula1.com about how he felt about having Kobayashi as a teammate. It would make sense for RBR to sign him to replace Webber as none of the other Red Bull junior drivers are good enough or have enough experience and the better rookies are already signed up, mainly to Mercedes.

Perez has strong Ferrari backing and if he proves himself decently quick might end up replacing Massa. He's in the Ferrari junior drivers project and has significant Mexican backing too.

So far though, Monaco apart I see little to suggest Perez has serious pace. Even in Monaco watching his qualifying he was so ragged he looked like an accident waiting to happen which sadly ended up being the case. I hope he improves, he needs to.

[wedge]

If Nakajima had followed the Honda engines to McLaren instead of Senna, then his career might have panned out differently.

The likelihood would have been zilch.

[Garry Walker]

Current rumours are that Kobayashi is due to replace Webber for the second seat at RBR.

Do you have a source for that?

[gids73]

Infiniti???

I heard a rumour he was going to replace Massa...