Larry Herman

I know that you said that "tongue in cheek" but unlike Sato, Nakajima and all the others, this kid really can drive an F1 car. It looks like Japan finally has a driver worth getting behind, and they would be crazy not to.

multi21

I was joking in the sense that Sato seems to be a RL favorite dating back a couple years when he made a hell of a pass on ALonso at Montreal when Alonso was in the all conquering McLaren.

But I like what I see from Kobi -- A LOT!!! The kid didn't get to test in an F1 car (which still boggles the mind how these drivers put up with that considering it's their lives on the line when they get an absolute green rookie with no F1 experience to race along side them - Webber are you listening).

In 2 races, he's been fantastic. I can see no way Toyota can't pick up this kid as their driver. Go Kobison!!!

Flying Finn

+1 He's awesome!

No testing etc. etc. and he's shown to all of these new guys & replacements that you can do it without testing as long as you have talent.

I didn't think the race itself was anything...
Koby beef's drive and last couple of laps from Button & Webber were the only highlights of the race, otherwise I thought the race was b o r i n g . . .

There will be some contracts signed & released, mainly Rosberg's Brawn, Kimi's McL and Heikki's Toyota and Kimi will drive at least on one rally but other than that, it will be quiet for a long while...

C U in February...

multi21

Abu Dhabi GP review with Kamui Kobayashi
F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit
Panasonic Toyota Racing finished the 2009 season on a positive note with a double points finish in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit this evening. Kamui Kobayashi gave a brilliant performance to score points in just his second Formula 1 race. The young Japanese looks back on his successful race.

What did you think about the new Yas Marina Circuit?
"The new facility is just amazing and I've never seen a racing track like that. The organisers did a great job with the facilities, which were perfect for everyone. The track itself was interesting and fun to drive; also you could overtake there which makes it even better."

How would you sum up your second Grand Prix weekend?
"It was a great weekend for me and I have to thank the team for this opportunity. Sixth place was a fantastic result and better than I imagined at the start of the weekend, so I am very pleased with how things worked out. Still, there is room for improvement and I have several areas to improve, such as qualifying pace. My target was to qualify in the top 10 but I just missed out, so there is a bit of work to do there."

How did you feel when you crossed the line to score your first Formula 1 points?
"I was just really, really happy because my goal since I was a little kid was to be a Formula 1 driver and to score points in only my second Grand Prix felt great. Actually, I had the potential to finish even higher but I lost a little time in traffic; otherwise I could have been fighting for fourth because I was getting close at the end of the race. It was a great moment to come back to the team after parc fermé and see how happy everyone was."

You had another exciting race, tell us about it.
"At the start I got a good getaway and managed to pass Kimi (Raikkonen) which was very important for our one-stop strategy. If I had been behind him during my first stint it would have been much tougher to score points but when I was past I concentrated on setting consistently fast lap times, even though I had a heavy fuel load. Towards the end of my first stint Jenson (Button) came out of the pits just in front of me. He was heavier than me and on cold tyres so I was able to pass him. Again that was important because I needed some fast laps at that time to make my strategy work. On the option tyres I struggled a bit to start with but then I found a rhythm and just kept going faster and faster, so at the end I was getting close to the battle for fourth."

How did it feel to overtake two World Champions?
"I don't think about them as World Champions; they are just my rivals on the track like everyone else and my job is to get past them if I can. It's fun to battle on track, particularly when you can overtake, but I'm only thinking about my race position, not about what another driver has won or whatever."

How did you prepare for this race? Did you concentrate on anything specific after Brazil?
"Well, I didn't know for sure I would be driving until the week of the race but obviously there was a chance because of Timo's injury. So I spent as much time as I could in Cologne at the factory; I was only at home in Paris for one day after Brazil. We looked at all the information from Brazil and identified areas to improve - things like car set-up, tyre management, communication with engineers. We studied everything and thought about improvements, which really paid off. One area I particularly worked hard on was race pace because that wasn't perfect in Brazil, so when I started the race I was confident I had the potential to get into the points."

Were you happy with your qualifying performance?
"It was not bad but I was aiming for the top 10 and I definitely think I had the potential to do that. In the end I was just a tenth of a second away which was a bit disappointing. But as we proved on race day, I was close enough to finish in the top six so everything worked out well."

What will you do now?
"My first priority is to take a holiday! For the past two years I have hardly had a day off with GP2, GP2 Asia and Formula 1 testing so I am really looking forward to a bit of a break to relax and recharge my batteries. After that, we'll see what happens."

Flying Finn

Well since it's basically because of his performance that there will be Toyota racing in F1 next season, he has no problems of getting a ride from them. This month 15th Toyota will make a final decision (about next season) and if the answer is 'YES', Kamu has a ride.
Although I have no doubt even in a scenario that Toyota pulls out, he will have a seat in some other team, it would be crazy for some of the teams to sign this kid up.

If I was R. Brawn, I would've already called with a contract.

ltc

If Toyota stays, I wonder what their budget will be.
IIRC, they were the top spender for a few years, rumored to be over $500M/year.

A.Wayne

According to the Mainichi Daily Newspaper from Japan, Toyota has decided that it will withdraw from Formula One. A meeting on 8 November was scheduled, but it appears that the board of directors have already decided against participation in 2010.

http://www.f1technical.net/news/13742

brendo

The Sport That Conquered Arabia
United Arab Emirates Goes Gaga for Racing's Formula One; By MARGARET COKER

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Abu Dhabi

Over the past decade, the United Arab Emirates, a young country with about 600,000 citizens, has been using its oil billions to stage an elaborate audition. It's trying to settle on a national sport.

Tiger Woods and Roger Federer have played here, but golf and tennis don't seem to fit the cultural vibe. Soccer and cricket have won some local followers, but these games face some obstacles in a place where grass is a contrivance.

This past weekend, at a new $1-billion track in Abu Dhabi, the number of Emiratis in traditional dress who sat in the stands, relaxed on yachts docked at the course or mingled in the pits where the smell of motor oil lingered in the air, suggested this audition is effectively over. The winner is Formula One.

"This is one of the best things to happen in our country, ever," gushed Khalid al Qubaisi, a 34-year-old fan.

Desert Boom A look at the scenes from the days leading up to and during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
View Slideshow
European Pressphoto Agency ..
In the days leading up to last weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, this city was fraught with the stomach-churning giddiness common in American cities celebrating the first season of an expansion team. Streets along the seaside promenade were festooned with flags. Public parks were turned into bumper-car arenas. Local restaurants served special Formula One meals.

When word spread a week before the race that tickets had sold out, some local families tried to trade in tribal favors for seats for Sunday's finale. The fact that Britain's Jenson Button had already been crowned champion two weeks earlier in Brazil made no difference, said Hamid al Marri, an 18-year-old Abu Dhabi native. "I want to tell my kids that I watched this live and not on TV," he said.

This race, the final stop of the Formula One season, was held at the brand new 3.4-mile Yas Marina Circuit. With 21 corners, the track has the longest straight in F1 and impact-absorbing barriers that allow fans to get closer to the cars. With 50,000 fans, an appearance by U.A.E. leader Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and entertainment from Aerosmith, the event was considered a wild success—one that has some talking of starting a local team.

"I've been trying to get Formula One here for 15 years," says Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the U.A.E's only professional race car driver. "It's a perfect match for our love of cars and love of speed, but our traditional culture has always been nervous about trying new things."

Formula One is, in many ways, a logical choice for this country. In the 1940s, around the time of the discovery of oil in the region, the nomads who roamed the vast expanses of Arabian desert treasured two belongings above all—their camels, which could carry their possessions and lead them to watering holes, and their horses, which were used in attack or defense. Both animals provided entertainment, too, and Arabs–and in particular Emiratis—were driven to own the fastest, strongest and hardiest creatures for themselves and their tribe.

The nation's existing sports culture revolves around contests of speed. Horse racing's Dubai World Cup, which kicked off in 1996, has an average attendance of 50,000. Camel racing also draws similar crowds and more regional rivalries. The rancor between fans of the sport's two giants, the son of Dubai's ruler and the son of the ruler of neighboring Qatar, resembles the animus between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

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European Pressphoto Agency Young spectators with race caps and ear protection.
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The nation's passion for cars, especially fast ones, is difficult to miss. The highway between Abu Dhabi and the desert town of Al Ain is a frequent setting for spontaneous—and often perilous—races between young men in their Porsches. In the sand dunes stretching to the Saudi border, parties of bored Emirati youth in souped-up Toyota Land Cruisers hold rally races that are the scourge of parents, police and environmentalists.

When neighboring Bahrain hosted the region's first Grand Prix event in 2004, a revived sense of competition spurred ambitions in Abu Dhabi, the capital and one of seven city-states that make up the U.A.E.

In 2005 one of the government's investment bodies, Mubadala, bought a 5% stake in Ferrari, and two years later, it signed a three-year sponsorship deal for Ferrari's F1 team. Over the past three years, Mubadala and its subsidiaries provided much of the funding to construct the Yas Marina Circuit.

This burst of enthusiasm—and money—comes at a time when Formula One, racing's most glamorous international circuit, is desperate for good news. German auto maker BMW won't be racing next season because of the economic downturn. Toyota was said to be preparing to announce Wednesday that it is leaving. Bridgestone, the circuit's sole tire supplier, announced this week that it won't seek to renew its contract when it ends next year. The sport itself has been embroiled in political battles over rules and proposed spending limits, with teams threatening earlier this year to withdraw and form a new circuit.

On Sunday, these issues seemed small and far away. Emirati fathers and sons lined up behind German and Brazilian F1 fans to snap up team T-shirts and souvenirs. The U.A.E.'s main cellphone provider crashed in the last laps of the finale, apparently due to the fast and furious text messaging in the stands.

Abu Dhabi organizers have reiterated their commitment for another race at Yas Marina in 2010 and plan to complete a theme park called Ferrari World to draw in visitors between race events. Farther in the future, Abu Dhabi officials say the government will be increasing engineering scholarships and opening a professional drivers' training academy in hopes of building a home-grown Formula One team.

"Excitement and enthusiasm for Formula One is stronger than ever," said Khaldoon al Mubarak, the chief executive of Mubadala and chairman of the Yas Marina Circuit.

Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com