After a friendly embrace and much slapping of shoulders, you sit down and fall to talking shop about the forthcoming Formula One season. Following your sensational World Championship title in 2008 – you were the youngest driver at the time – and fifth and fourth rankings in the two ensuing years, you've been working hard with the McLaren team to fine-tune the new silver bullet; you're all keen to get back onto the winners' podium.
Dessert is served. A delicious end to a very pleasant get-together with your friend. What you cannot yet know is that
your friendship is destined to cool rapidly in the coming months, a fact that the sensation-hungry media will go to town on...
Almost exactly a year later, in January 2012, the heady smell of Formula One once again hits the Hotel Schweizerhof Luzern. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber team driver since 2010, has been invited to attend a photo shoot by sponsors Certina. The Swiss sports watch brand shows imagination by setting the Japanese in the historical ambience of the Schweizerhof. His work done, Kamui stays to have a meal at the hotel’s Restaurant Galerie.
He's one of few from his country not to like sushi, having instead a strong liking for Swiss cuisine. It's just as well: he drives for a Swiss racing team and is considering applying for a residency permit in Switzerland. He gives the game away by writing in the guest book:
«Maybe I should move to Zug, where other Formula One drivers live...»
