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Kobayashi: I expected to be re-signed

23 November 2009

Kamui Kobayashi has explained how he discovered Toyota would be pulling out of Formula 1 and that, furthermore, on his way to the meeting in question, believed that he was about to be offered of a full-time race contract for the 2010 season.

Kobayashi joins Kazuki Nakajima on-track at Fuji on Sunday

After making his debut in Brazil, Kobayashi raised eyebrows by finishing the race at Interlagos ninth before going on to score three World Championship points in Abu Dhabi only a fortnight later. Naturally, Toyota's news that it was to leave the sport with immediate affect came as a blow to the reigning GP2 Asia Series Champion.

"I had a meeting with the team at night, the day before I heard Toyota was quitting F1," Kamui told GPUpdate.net at Fuji Speedway, scene of last weekend's Toyota Motor Sports Festival. "I thought I could be a 2010 race driver and went to the meeting but the team told me that there was a possibility of pulling out of Formula 1.

Toyota's final line-up: Trulli and Nakajima

"They said that the pull-out wasn't officially decided, and that there was a chance of staying in F1, but also said not to be surprised should an announcement be made the following morning; when I woke up next morning, my Manager told me that the team had indeed decided to pull out of F1 - I was really shocked."

Having seemingly seen a race seat snatched from his pocket, Kobayashi revealed that he is none the wiser with regards to 2010. "For next year, I think my Manager has been talking other teams but, to be honest, I want to take a break now," he added. "It's difficult for me to do something without signing for another team, so I will leave it to my Manager and want to have a break. I will go back to Europe in December to speak about the upcoming season. So, for now, I don't know what will happen for next year."

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