planetf1.com

Poor guy, what else could he have done.

_________________
Official Kamui Kobayashi Fanboy

Link? I don't doubt it, I just want to see whats being said.

With Buemi the most likely candidate now for Force India it really does look like Caterham or bust :/ And with so many drivers vying it'll be the highest bidder.

This sucks and blows

_________________
I AM THE THREAD KILLER.

He has a nice retirement fund at least.

_________________
http://www.racefan.co.uk

Buemi?! I thought Bianchi was a shoe-in?

_________________
Official Kamui Kobayashi Fanboy

I don't think he can get these money, if he can't find a seat.

_________________
''What use are poets in times of need?'' --Friedrich Hölderlin

To be honest as I posted previously I gave him the idea to set up the fund way back in October it's clear to see my tweet to him for anyone who thinks this might not be true.
But I am very disapointed he does it then doesn't even bother to tweet me back, I had many other idea's to make his money but if he doesn't talk to who help him maybe this is why he has no sponsors?

You're so wonderful. I heard you also told Adrian Newey about exhaust gases?

He has raised 182,205,087 yen (£1,349,767) as of December 14.

I am sure that must be a typing error...otherwise this Force India seat is going to become Massa's seat this year, when about 10 drivers were linked to it by the time the merry go round was brought to a halt!

Still no corporation wants to sponsor him??

What happend to Sakon who was with HRT in 2010 ??

He has raised 184,655,120 yen (£1,358,957) as of December 17.

Did you get the idea from Justin Wilson?

_________________
"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

I agree, that's poor form.

Believe it or not Buemi was actually said to be the most likely.. and then a day later he's most likely to be Fearri's 3rd driver.

Basically, too many rumours. I can't keep up!

_________________
I AM THE THREAD KILLER.

Sutil's back in the running for his old FI seat too. I'd put money on FI going for Sutil over Buemi or Massa.

_________________

For Felipe's sake, I hope so! Haha.

I think it will be Sutil or Bianchi, Buemi has no links to the team and nothing more to offer than Sutil. Kobayashi and Kovalainen are sensible choices but don't look like they are being considered.

To All the fans,

Thank you for the big support. I am very appreciated that many of you have donated and trying to make donation.
I must mention this that since the donation started, it has become quite big news in Japan. And because of your big support, it gave huge influences to some of Japanese companies and I started receiving good support from them.
And I was in the position to bring a budget of 8 million Euro at least. If you could imagine the time I had, it was overwhelming reaction and it shows there still is a great potential from Japanese companies.

Unfortunately, the time was still short and I am not able to secure the seat with competitive F1 team for 2013. I have to admit that it is very sad and feel sorry for fans and Japanese companies who supported me. But I am still confident to make it happen in 2014.

I would like to stop the donation for now and while I will save all the money for 2014, I start to look what is the best option for 2013 and also 2014. My main priority is to secure the competitive F1 seat in 2014. I have no interests to race any other categories.

I will make an announcement as soon as I make a decision for 2013.
So, please wait and really looking forward your support for coming year, too.

All the best,

KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Tokyo, Japan
December 18, 2012

http://www.kamui-support.com/

Does this mean he's not giving the money back?

Bless him, hope the money can help him to a 2014 seat or he gets brought in as a super-sub, maybe for Grosjean if he keeps playing up.

_________________
Official Kamui Kobayashi Fanboy

He's bloody nieve if he thinks he can just sit out of motorsport for a year. He'll need to race in another category to keep himself fresh race wise. If he doesn't no decent team will look at him over someone who has been racing all year.

_________________
1994 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Bye bye. He wont be back. Is he not even getting a reserve/testing seat?!



Already hit the press: http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/stor ... CMP=chrome

_________________

Read the post above yours - you'd know the answer already...

_________________

But i thought he said he would return the money if he doesnt get a seat this year :S

_________________
KIMI: Yeah,Winning feels good.But I am not the type of guy to jump up and down and rub it in everyone's face.

He is trying to use it for 2014 like he said......

_________________
A man exists for only a lifetime, a name lasts until the end of time.

Damn, somebody get this guy a medal. I think it makes no difference to anyone here whether it was your idea for Kamui to raise funds, or if it was Rowan Atkinson's.

_________________
DISCLAIMER #1: You're probably going to ignore the above post.
DISCLAIMER #2: My posts often tend to deter any users from posting again on a thread. I'm a thread-killer.

sounds like a good scam to me ... i might try it, raise 8 mil then.... sorry i didn't get a drive

Yeah... Sounds kinda weird... :/ I think he should have returned the money.

_________________
KIMI: Yeah,Winning feels good.But I am not the type of guy to jump up and down and rub it in everyone's face.

Not your money, our money!! Leave us alone! !

People donate money to get Koba a drive, he says if he don't get the drive they get their money back. Koba ends up with no drive and no one gets their money back.

Nice Swindle.

_________________
Driver Instructor & Test Driver

I somehow doubt its a scam from Koba, he's said he's going to use it to go towards 2014. If it combines with added interest from Japanese sponsors as he says, and lands him a seat for 2014, then go for it!

If he doesn't get a seat in 2014 though... well he should give the money to charity. However at the end of the day, people gave their money to him willingly, haha! Was there any terms and conditions to sign saying if he didn't get a drive you would definately got your money back?

_________________
"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

But which 2014 seat could he possibly be confident in getting?

A competitive one he also said,

That leaves Lotus , Williams or FI again.

Check your facts. He said he will use the money to get 2014 drive if he fails to get 2013 seat.

_________________
Any old sap can pull teeth from a dead crocodile.
It takes a man to pull teeth from a live one.

One year from now people will forget about Kobayashi and donated money. In the meantime he will invest them and reap nice profits for himself.

Just what I said earlier. He fail to get drive this year so it unlikely he will do next year.

I think he has a decent chance at a drive in 2014.

Webber might decide 5 years of being spanked by Seb is enough and retire.
Ferrari might finally lose patience with Massa IF he has another poor season.
Kimi might get bored again and leave F1 for good
Grosjean might continue to cause accidents and fail to match Kimi's results.
Perez might turn out to be another Kovi and Mclaren let him go (unlikely, I think he will get at least 2 years, like Heikki).

Now I'm not saying Kamui will get a seat in a Ferrari, Red Bull or Mclaren but someone else like Hulk, Di Resta or Maldonado might. This will create spaces further down the grid in the midfield teams and KK might get lucky. He could do worse than being a test driver for a team like Lotus or Merc next season.

_________________
I remember when this website was all fields.

well, lets look at 2014 for the competitive teams :

Redbull : Vettel + that seat could be available but not likely (candidates : webber , raikonnen)
Ferrari Alonso + if not massa with his current form than it would be webber or hulkenberg
Mclaren : button and perez on long term deals
Mercedes : both drivers long term deals
Lotus : that is the most likely team he could join because both drivers aren't contracted for 2014
Williams : pretty much will stick with their two pay drivers
Force india : may be they will get bored of di resta but then jules bianchi is waiting

_________________
Ask no questions, hear no lies

Not your money, our money!! Leave us alone! ![/quote]
We know what we're doing.
Edit the quotes didn't work out right there lol

If Guitterez proves to be a massive disappointment he would be a natural choice for Sauber to have back as well assuming they didn't need more sponsorship and that somebody like Maldonado was not available. Already knows the team. Let's wait and hope.

Altough I find Kamui quite likeable as person, I don´t rate him too high, his race pace has never been that good

At least he's been more consistent than Perez in the end.

_________________
Supporting:

Kimi, the iceman.