MOTORSPORT: Formula One's quiet achiever

Veteran Formula One commentator Murray Walker once called Kamui Kobayashi “Japan’s best F1 driver yet’, while ex-F1 pilot Martin Brundle has described him as a highly skilled overtaker with the uncanny ability to out-brake many of his rivals.

Kobayashi showed he was worthy of such high praises in 2012 when, as a pilot for Sauber-Ferrari, he finished fourth in the German Grand Prix and fifth in Spain, qualified on the front row in Belgium and then claimed a podium finish at his home circuit in Japan.

When he lost his seat at Sauber-Ferrari, it looked like his F1 days were over. but after regrouping in 2013 and raising some much needed sponsorship dollars he returned to F1 as a driver for Caterham-Renault in 2014.

When we caught up with him during a recent trip to Tokyo for some well-earned R&R, Kobayashi was brimming with confidence about this season and the potential he believes Caterham has.

“One day on TV, I saw a kid racing karts and thought to myself, that’s what I want to do,” says Kobayashi, who was just nine years old when – like most F1 racers -- he started racing karts.

But getting onto a track was not easy because his father had no interest in motorsport. Kobayashi was a head-strong kid and did not take no for an answer. In the days when you still had to pick up a phone book to look up numbers, he found a kart circuit’s phone number and asked his dad to take him.

After their 10th visit, Kobayashi remembers, he asked hid father to buy him a kart. “But dad was really reluctant. So he made a deal with me. He said that he’d buy one only if I overtook someone on the track.”

However, passing someone was not easy because he was driving a slower rent-a-kart and the other guys had faster racing karts.

“So I decided to wait for a faster kart to catch me before a corner, and then I overtook him in the corner by not braking at all.

“Of course I understeered and ended up in the tyre barrier as I was going too fast to take the corner.  Oh yeah, and I ended up with a few cuts and bruises. But dad honoured his promise and bought me a go-kart,” he smiles.

He finished third in his first season driving karts, and in the next seven years showed his potential by capturing four Japanese karting championships.

In 2004, he signed for Toyota's Driver Academy and soon began his career in open-wheel racing. His next step was Formula Renault, entering the Asian, German, Italian and Dutch championships.

Having picked up two wins in Italy, he says that the biggest challenge for racing drivers from Asia is not the racing but the language barrier. You’d expect him to say that he had a British tutor or travelled to London to study English. Not Kobayashi.

“I picked my English up in Italy. Yes, really! In Vicenza. When I went to Europe to race, I joined an Italian team. I had private lessons at home, but I learned more from TV movies and my teammates.

“If you don’t speak English you can’t work as a driver. Some Japanese drivers [like ex-F1 pilot] Takuma Sato are fluent, but some others cannot speak well and it made me wonder how they communicate with their team.”

Kobayashi’s F1 odyssey has been tumultuous to say the least. After debuting in F1 at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix piloting a Toyota, he was contracted to drive for the Japanese team in the 2010 season.

But the affects of the global financial crisis finally caught up with Toyota, which decided to withdraw from racing, leaving Kobayashi beached and looking for a seat. Then, after weeks of speculation, it was announced that he would drive for Sauber, where he stayed until his untimely dismissal in 2012, a year in which he recorded his first podium finish.

Now he’s back, racing with Caterham-Renault and slowly crawling his way up the grid. And he loves talking about racing. How fit so you have to be to compete in F1?

“You must be super-fit and have a strong neck and stomach to keep up with the G-forces. In many corners we are doing five Gs and when we brake, it’s around 4.8 G. The hardest parts of racing are the long bends where you have to withstand four or five G corners for three or four seconds. That’s tough,” says Kobayashi.

He is able to take such punishment because he trains. That’s not like the training you or I do down at our local gym, mind you. He attends trainer-assisted sessions for five or six hours every day, eats set menus and goes to the gym every second day.

“We do lots of running and cycling. And I do some regular weight training. The most important part is the stomach, your abs. When you steer or brake you need strong stomach muscles. We do lots of sit-ups and twisting, changing movements each week to get different types of abs training.

Kobayashi says a combination of fitness and mental training is critical. That’s why he combines physical training with the likes of Tetris.

“I also play Tetris, you know, the computer puzzle game. I do the maximum level on my iPhone. It helps with my reaction times. When I do cycling in the gym, at a heart-rate of around 150, I also play Tetris.

“It’s crucial to be able to maintain a high heart-rate while being able to think clearly and strategically. We can’t just think of fast lap times. We must think about things like race strategy and tyre management while we are racing.”

Not surprisingly, this level of care extends into the kitchen too. We’d heard that Kobayashi likes Aussie beef and wine, so we had to ask. “Yes I do like good food and wine, but in moderation. I like Aussie beef because it’s lean and tasty, and it has less fat than Japanese beef. I am not a big fan of that marbled Japanese beef.

“A typical meal might be some salad with a lean fillet of beef, yes Aussie beef, and a glass or two of red wine. But I hardly touch bread, rice or pasta -- got to keep the carb intake down. And I don’t like garlic that much. I struggle the day after,” smirks Kobayashi.

Having secured a Caterham seat, he is mildly optimistic for better results after the first few races of 2014.

“At our home GP at Sepang, our 13th and 14th team result is good and about the best we could hope for at present,” he says. “More R&D is needed. We have done lots of practice laps so we have plenty of data to go over. And that’s good and should help us in Spain.”

We could not finish our chat with Kobayashi without asking him what he thought of the significant changes to F1 regulations – in terms of both design and engineering -- this year.

“The design changes are radical but have been added for safety. They’ve been put in to prevent cars from flying into the air after nose-to-rear-tyre crashes. And it makes sense. Anything that improves safety is always good.

“As for the new engines, they might not sound as good as last year but they develop the same power and use a lot less fuel. And I think the improved KERS system allows for more overtaking, which is better for fans.

“This is good because F1 has to be seen to be contributing to the development of better, safer, more fuel efficient road cars.”