F1 cult hero returns to drive more than 10 years since last appearance
More than a decade after he last sat in a Formula 1 cockpit, Kamui Kobayashi has relived the experience by taking part in an official team test. Haas have given the Japanese former F1 star a chance to drive one of their racing machines.
It marks the first time Kobayashi has driven an F1 car since he last raced in the World Championship in 2014. That was with minnows Caterham, though he previously also represented Toyota and Sauber having begun his career with the former in 2009.
But, on Thursday, the 38-year-old got to relive the experience. He took part in a Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) event with Haas, driving the VF-23 car that the American team fielded in the 2023 F1 season.
Haas posted photos of Kobayashi behind the wheel in the garage before heading out on track at the Circuit Paul Ricard, near Marseille in the south of France. The test was arranged in partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing, Haas' technical partner since the Japanese carmaker's return to F1 last October.
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Though Toyota has not competed in F1 since quitting the sport in 2009, its Gazoo Racing division has been highly successful in other motorsport categories including rallying and endurance competitions. Kobayashi has played a key role in the latter success in recent years, as a two-time winner of the World Endurance Championship and a victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021.
His achievements in endurance racing far outstrip what he was ever able to do during his time on the F1 grid. Having represented largely uncompetitive teams, he managed just one podium finish for Sauber at the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, his home race, where he finished third by impressively holding off Jenson Button in the faster McLaren.
Despite that achievement, Kobayashi lost his place on the grid at the end of that 2012 season. He returned with cash-strapped Caterham in 2014, after a year in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), but they were entirely uncompetitive and folded ahead of the 2015 campaign.
Kobayashi returned to WEC in 2016 with Toyota and was immediately competitive. Alongside a range of different team-mates over eight seasons, he has finished outside the top three in the championship only once, when he was fifth in 2017, winning the title twice in 2020 and 2021.
Since 2021, he has also been team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing's WEC programme, alongside his duties as a driver. His F1 test on Thursday was the second run by Haas this year, the first having taken place in Jerez, Spain, in January.
Behind the wheel were 2025 F1 drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman, as well as Toyota Gazoo Racing development driver and Formula 2 racer Ritomo Miyata. Another TGR figure involved at Haas these days is Ryo Hirakawa, who joined from Alpine as a reserve and has driven for the team in first practice at the Bahrain and Spanish Grands Prix.
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