Biography

The following year, he contested the entire championship ultimately finishing runner-up, at which point, like so many other Japanese drivers, he opted to move to Europe.

However, rather than try his luck in Britain, Kamui headed to Italy, where he contested Formula Renault Italian Championship. In his first season, the youngster finished fourth, returning to win the championship just one year later.

2005 was a definitive year for Kamui, for in addition to his victory in the Formula Renault Italian Championship he also won the Formula Renault Euro Championship. Not bad for a 19-year-old.

In 2006 he moved up to F3, competing in the Formula 3 Euro Series. While he could only manage eighth in the championship he did take the 'Rookie of the Year' award.

The following year, remaining in the Formula 3 Euro Series, he finished fourth overall, taking a convincing win at Magny-Cours under the eyes of the F1 paddock.

A long-time member of Toyota's Young Driver Programme (TDP), Kamui's 2007 performance in F3 was enough to convince the Japanese manufacturer to hand him the third driver role for its F1 team in 2008, supporting Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock. In addition to his F1 commitments, Kamui was signed up to the GP2 Series and GP2 Asia with DAMS.

Having finished sixth in the inaugural GP2 Asia series with two wins, much was expected of the youngster in the GP2 Series 'proper'.

However, despite taking a controversial win in the Sprint Race at Barcelona, having started from pole, it was a season of little note for the youngster, with his teammate Jerome d'Ambrosio regularly outshining him.

At season end, Kamui was a disappointing sixteenth, however he went into 2009 retained as third driver for Toyota and a full season of racing in GP2 Asia and the main series.

The record books show that Kamui won the 2008/2009 GP2 Asia series, the Japanese youngster winning the feature races at Sentul and Sepang. However, the real star of the show was Nico Hulkenberg who, though he only contested two rounds (Bahrain and Qatar), scored 27 points thereby finishing sixth in the championship.

In the main series, Kamui, to be blunt, was disappointing, his best result being a third place in the sprint race at Silverstone. At season end he was sixteenth in the standings - as in the previous season - and some were wondering whether the youngster was as good as originally thought.

The answer came almost two months after the final round of the GP2 Series when Kamui was called on to replace Timo Glock in the Friday practice sessions of the Japanese Grand Prix after the German complained of being unwell.

While Glock recovered next day and was able to take part in the final free practice session a crash during qualifying ruled him out of the race. The Japanese team requested permission that Kamui be allowed to deputise for the German but the request was turned down as the rules state that he had to have taken part in at least one session on the Saturday.

However, when Glock was ruled out for the remainder of the season, the German having suffered a cracked vertebra, Kamui was finally given the opportunity to prove himself and prove himself he did.

In the madness of Brazil, a session that lasted almost three hours, Kamui qualified eleventh. Next day he finished tenth but was promoted to ninth when Kovalainen was handed a 25s penalty for his "unsafe release" from his first pit stop.

While much of the media attention focussed on Jenson Button who had finally secured the title, the main talking point on message boards and forums was Kamui's performance.

Given the opportunity to race an F1 car that's exactly what the 23-year-old did, mixing it with the best of them and clearly no respecter of reputations or length of service.

Following a fight with Nakajima that saw the Williams driver run wide and out of the race, Kamui was lucky not to be hauled up before he stewards, while Button, who enjoyed his own little skirmish with the Toyota driver, described him as "absolutely crazy".

"It was a tough race for me," said Kamui after the race. "Physically it felt like a really long race and it was quite tough. My first target was to finish the race and I am pleased to achieve that, but after the start I was in a decent position to score points so I am a little disappointed I didn't."

Two weeks later in Abu Dhabi, Kamui almost stole the show yet again however, this time there were no comments as to his mental state. Indeed, when the youngster pulled a move on him, forcing him into a mistake, newly-crowned world champion Jenson Button was amongst the first to heap praise on the young Toyota driver.

Another impressive no-nonsense performance saw Kamui finish sixth thereby scoring the first points of his F1 career and no doubt the youngster headed to bed that night already anticipating the call which would see him secure a full season with Toyota in 2010.

However, just three days later the Japanese manufacturer announced that it was pulling out of F1 with immediate effect leaving Kamui to ponder whether he might be spending 2010 working for his father in his sushi restaurant.

Just over a month later however, Kamui was named as one of Peter Sauber's drivers for 2010, the Swiss having taken back control of his team after BMW followed Honda and pre-empted Toyota.

With a Ferrari powerplant behind him, Kamui will line up on the grid in Bahrain with one of the sport's most experienced drivers (Pedro de la Rosa) as his teammate.

"The combination of a seasoned racer and an up-and-coming young driver has repeatedly proved a very fruitful one," said Peter Sauber following the official confirmation of de la Rosa's signing. "I don't expect either of them to disappoint in 2010."

And neither do we Peter, neither do we.

Statistics - at the end of 2009 Season

Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 1
Grand Prix: 2
Wins: 0
Points: 3
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 0

Best result in 2009: 6th (Abu Dhabi)
Best qualifying 2009: 11th (Brazil)
Worst qualifying 2009: 12th (Abu Dhabi)
2009: Out-qualified Jarno Trulli 0 times
2009: Out-qualified by Jarno Trulli 2 times

2009: Completed 126 out of 126 laps (100%)
2009: Finished 2 times from 2 starts (100%)