It may not have been a stellar year for Panasonic Toyota Racing, but it ended up on a bright note.

Toyota may have stumbled onto a rising star, a young Japanese driver that should give the carmaker good reason to continue participating in Formula One racing.

There are fears Toyota may pullout much like Honda and BMW.

But Kamui Kobayashi, a 23-year-old driver who came out of the Toyota Driving Academy, may tip the odds heavily in favor of Toyota continuing in the world's most popular motorsport.

In just two races subbing for the the injured Timo Glock, Kobayashi put on notice that he will be a driver to watch and reckon with in F1 in the years to come.

In his first-ever Formula One, Kobayashi nearly finished in the points seconds behind Rubens Barrichello after starting on 11th on the grid.

All this on a track that he was not familiar with and on a race car that he hasn't driven before.

But it was how he gave 2009 world champion Jenson Button fits in trying to overtake a slower Toyota that showed he wasn't a rookie driver to be intimidated by stars.

To be sure there were complaints about his aggressive defensive maneuvers, but that should only enhance his reputation as a driver to watch in future F1 races.

Kobayashi raised his profile more in the last race of the year at the brand-new Yas Marina racetrack where promised to do better because veterans did not have the advantage of being familiar with the track.

Kobayashi qualified 12th and started beside Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.

At the start, he battled past Raikkonen who had the benefit of extra power boost from KERS and at another point in the race overtake another world champion in Button.

Here's what he said about those encounters with world champions:

"At the start I got a good getaway and managed to pass Kimi which was very important for our one-stop strategy. If I had been behind him during my first stint it would have been much tougher to score points but when I was past I concentrated on setting consistently fast lap times, even though I had a heavy fuel load.

"Towards the end of my first stint Jenson came out of the pits just in front of me. He was heavier than me and on cold tires so I was able to pass him. Again that was important because I needed some fast laps at that time to make my strategy work. On the option tires I struggled a bit to start with but then I found a rhythm and just kept going faster and faster, so at the end I was getting close to the battle for fourth.

"I don't think about them as World Champions; they are just my rivals on the track like everyone else and my job is to get past them if I can. It's fun to battle on track, particularly when you can overtake, but I'm only thinking about my race position, not about what another driver has won or whatever."

Already, Kobayahi has shown he has the skills, the aptitude, and the race pace of a future champion. Toyota should hitch a ride with this rising star.