Handed a chance to make his Formula One debut for Toyota at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix thanks to an unfortunate injury suffered by Timo Glock in Japan, Kamui Kobayashi joins the team as the defending GP2 Asia series champion.

The 23-year-old began his racing career in karting before moving on to the Formula Renault series in 2004 where he claimed two race wins in his first season before securing the overall champsionship title a year later.

Following his success the previous year, the Amagasaki-born driver joined the Formula Three Euroseries in 2006, becoming a member of the ASM Formule 3 team alongside Sebastian Vettel.

At the beginning of 2007 Kobayashi and compatriot Kohei Hirate were named as Toyota's new F1 testers.

Kobayashi remained in Formula Three for the 2007 season and was promoted to the position of third driver at the Toyota F1 team, with the youngster replacing Franck Montagny.

The Japanese continued his role with the team while participating in the GP2 series, finishing 16th in the overall series and first in the Asia series in 2009.

Kobayashi was able to gather valuable time behind the wheel of Toyota's 2009 model having deputised for Glock after the German fell ill before Friday practice at the Japanese Grand Prix.

With Glock cracking a vertebrae in qualifying for the race the next day Kobayashi was the "natural choice" to replace the German, according to team boss John Howett.