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#011
Driver Profile
KAMUI
KOBAYASHI
Japanese racing driver (born 1986)
Career Note
Kamui Kobayashi is a Japanese racing driver and motorsport executive, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota and in Super Formula for KCMG. Kobayashi competed in Formula One from 2009 to 2014. In endurance racing, Kobayashi has won two FIA World Endurance Championship titles, and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021, all with Toyota; he is also a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019 and 2020 with WTR. Since 2022, Kobayashi has served as team principal of Toyota in WEC, winning three consecutive World Manufacturers' Championship titles from 2022 to 2024.
Read full article on Wikipedia →Signature
Career Constellation
Each season is a star — sized by overall wins, positioned by championship rank, coloured by primary class. Gold ring marks championship-winning campaigns; silver ring marks top-three finishes.
Most Shared Cars
Frequent Teammates
Every Race · 79 entries
Race Log
Time on track
Lap Aggregate
Year by year
Season Splits
FIA Categorisation
Rating Timeline
FIA driver categorisation per event — Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Member. Sourced from Al Kamel entry-list PDFs.
Crosslinks
Related
Most-raced circuits
Manufacturers driven
From the answers archive
Questions about this driver
Drivers · 5 min read
Who is Kamui Kobayashi?
[Kamui Kobayashi](/drivers/kamui-kobayashi) is a Japanese endurance racing driver and the team principal of [Toyota Gazoo Racing](/teams/toyota-gazoo-racing) Europe. He holds the WEC's all-time race fastest-lap record at 23 and shares the all-time pole record at 17 with his long-time team-mate [Mike Conway](/drivers/mike-conway). Kobayashi won the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans with the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, set the all-time Le Mans qualifying record of 3:24.408 in 2022, and remains on the WEC grid in 2026 with the No. 7 entry he has driven since 2017.
Drivers · 4 min read
Who has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Hypercar era?
Five teams have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans since the Hypercar class arrived in 2021. Toyota Gazoo Racing took the first two runnings with the GR010 Hybrid. Ferrari has won every Le Mans since, taking three consecutive overall victories with the 499P from 2023 to 2025. Every winning crew so far has been all new to Le Mans victory at the time of the win.
Drivers · 4 min read
Who has the most WEC race fastest laps?
[Kamui Kobayashi](/drivers/kamui-kobayashi) has set the most race fastest laps in WEC history, with 23 across 102 race sessions since 2012. [Mike Conway](/drivers/mike-conway) sits second with 22, followed by [Jose Maria Lopez](/drivers/jose-maria-lopez) on 20, [Andre Lotterer](/drivers/andre-lotterer) on 17 and [Brendon Hartley](/drivers/brendon-hartley) on 16. The top five all share a Toyota Gazoo Racing connection at some point in their WEC careers, with Lotterer the only one to set most of his fastest laps for a different manufacturer.
Drivers · 4 min read
Which driver has the most WEC overall race wins?
[Sebastien Buemi](/drivers/sebastien-buemi) holds the record for the most overall WEC race wins with 27 victories, ahead of his long-time Toyota team-mate [Brendon Hartley](/drivers/brendon-hartley) on 24. The top five is rounded out by [Mike Conway](/drivers/mike-conway) with 19, [Kamui Kobayashi](/drivers/kamui-kobayashi) with 18 and [Kazuki Nakajima](/drivers/kazuki-nakajima) with 17. All five drove for Toyota Gazoo Racing across some part of the LMP1-Hybrid era.
Drivers · 4 min read
Which driver has the most WEC pole positions?
[Kamui Kobayashi](/drivers/kamui-kobayashi) and [Mike Conway](/drivers/mike-conway) share the all-time WEC pole record with 17 overall poles each. Both drove the [No. 7 Toyota](/teams/toyota-gazoo-racing) through the LMP1-Hybrid and early Hypercar eras, and they accumulated the record together over six seasons in the same car. [Brendon Hartley](/drivers/brendon-hartley) and [Jose Maria Lopez](/drivers/jose-maria-lopez) sit tied for third on 14 each, and [Timo Bernhard](/drivers/timo-bernhard) and [Sebastien Buemi](/drivers/sebastien-buemi) are fifth-equal on 9.
Regulations · 4 min read
What is Hyperpole and how does it work?
Hyperpole is the WEC's top-shootout qualifying format. After a 12 to 15 minute open qualifying session in which every car runs, the fastest cars in each class transfer to a separate Hyperpole session and fight for pole position alone on track. At Le Mans, the top six cars from each class transfer. At all other WEC rounds since 2024, the top eight transfer in Hypercar and the top eight in LMGT3. The Hyperpole session itself is short, between 10 and 30 minutes depending on the round.