Kamui Kobayashi
 

His first race today. And I have to say he drove pretty well.

He did very well to hold Button up. Pity about his incident with Nakajima though.
Still his drive was better than most newbies this season.

So it could be him and Glock partnered up next year.

Any thoughts?

If Toyota do manage to stick in f1,Koba seems to be one of the drivers...dunno whether they will extend Timo's contract though...Someone like Heidfeld would be ideal for them

Honestly, I wouldn't say Kobayashi was holding up Button much. Button tried a few times to pass but I think he realized that with the previous passes, his tires were prob going off so he wanted to take it easy. If anything, Kobayashi was losing ground to Buemi and the leaders in front of Buemi. He definitely was not turning my head in this race, IMO.

Can anyone else have an opinion on whether he was turning your had or not?

With all the restrictions we have this year I think he did a pretty good job. He seemed to be very cool keeping Button behind him there for a while.

I was very impressed overall with his performance and he kept Button behind him for quite a while. He showed abit of inexperience with some agressive defensive moves, notably with Nakajima, but on the whole I think he showed his potential. I expect to see him on the grid next season. http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...lies/smile.gif

Toyota mentioned a couple of weeks back that they wouldn't retain Glock.. looks like he might be on his way to Renault now

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79570

Kobayashi did a decent job and he'll be odds-on to stay with the team, partly because they'll have to pay him a lot less than Trulli.

I'd say his 1st race was better than any of the other of this years new drivers first race.

Thanks for starting this thread. Kobay drove amazingly well in his first GP proving the doubters wrong (naming no names but you know who you are http://www.motorsportforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ). His fierce defensive drive was a thing of beauty (aside from the slightly clumsy Naka move) and he even showed he could overtake too later in the race. I've been singing his praises for a couple of years and I hope Japan are finally going to have a driver their passion deserves.

Looks like my FGP team is Nico and Kobay for next year.

My expectations were based off his GP2 results, so I was extremely surprised by his pace (and moxie). The Toyota has been quick lately but it looked as if he had 5,000km of testing under his belt.

http://www.motorsportforums.com/images/styles/World/icons/icon14.gif The fire is there. I enjoyed that defensive driving.

But Trulli wasn't in the race after lap 1 and Kobayashi only finished 10th after his strong first half of the race. Hate to be a realist but IMO the car was probably capable of a lot more today.

IMO the jury is out.

There's potential there it seems but then Sato looked the same.

glock to renault - that i doubt,I think Romain Grosjean deserves a fair shot...Glock could have a deal with STR though...I don't think Buemi and Alguersari show a lot of potential

Yeah, that must be it, Button just didn't really try to overtake him and his whining over the radio was just to keep you entertained. LOL!

Yeah, that must be it, Button just didn't really try to overtake him and his whining over the radio was just to keep you entertained. LOL!

Kobayashi drove a great race, but he bloated his copybook with that move against Nakajima. He definitely has great potential, like Nakajima showed in his first race, also in Brazil a couple of years ago.

Grosjean is a slow crashaholic.

You missed the critical point Ioan he is a slow french crashaholic http://www.motorsportforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...es/biggrin.gif

Similar to Schumi/Hakkinen/Macau.

I don't think Koby did anything wrong. He had every right to block. From the rear onboard shot I thought it was quite obvious Naka left it a millisecond too late. He went right up to Koby's gearbox and veering for the inside but is was so obvious Koby was going to cover the inside so why didn't Naka choose to fake one way and try the outside?

Now that you mention it... http://www.motorsportforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Koba will be fine. He'll make a grate successor to MW as president of the GPDA.

From the camera view facing up the straight it looked like Koby swerves under braking to defend the inside which gave Nakajima no time to react. I would just put it down to inexperience and a poor move on Kaka's part. Other than this I think Koby drove great on his debut. http://www.motorsportforums.com/imag...lies/smile.gif