One name has to be included on the list of Asia’s most famous racing drivers: Kamui Kobayashi. The old adage is true in his case - you always meet twice in life. After his Formula 1 career, a foray into the WEC and Super Formula, he contested two Formula E races at the Hong Kong E-Prix in December 2017. His team back then, MS&AD Andretti Formula E, under the name BMW i Andretti Motorsport, has been responsible for BMW’s works entry in the race series for electric single-seater cars since Season 5. Most recently, Kobayashi was a regular starter at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. The man from Japan has three second places to his name. He and his team-mate dominated the LMP-1 class in the iconic race for 23 hours in 2019, before they were plagued by a defect and victory slipped from their grasp.
As fate would have it, the paths of BMW and Kobayashi will cross again in 2019 – at Fuji in November, when the DTM and Super GT compete together in the Dream Race. Kobayashi will race in a BMW M Motorsport touring car for the first time on the 4.563-kilometre track in view of the legendary Mount Fuji.