Great Weekend For Sebastien Buemi In China

I'm offline for a couple of weeks, so I haven't been able to post much (and this will continue for a while). However, I thought I better make a quick post about Sebastien Buemi's stellar performance in China at the Formula One Grand Prix in Shanghai.

Qualifying

First in qualifying, Buemi made it through to Q3, which is a huge success. In contrast, Buemi's Toro Rosso teammate, Sebastien Bourdais was knocked out in Q1. Buemi started the race in P10 while Bourdais started back in P15.

That doesn't sound like a huge difference, because Buemi finished last in Q3 and Bourdais was promoted due to Glock's penalty, but the fact that Buemi made it through to Q3 is extremely impressive. According to an interview on ITV's website, it was more than Buemi expected.

I don’t think I could have got any higher up the order.

On low fuel, the car was very good, but we didn’t have any new options left for Q3, so I had to do three flying laps on the prime.

So, considering that, we can be satisfied with this.

Buemi also praised his team:

The team worked really well, doing a fantastic job to improve the car a lot since the start of the season and today it worked very well.

They've obviously done a great job judging by the team's performance this weekend.

James Allen also gave Sebastien Buemi an honourable mention in his article on the star of qualifying, saying:

In Q1 Sebastien Buemi did a great job, beating his team mate by seven-tenths of a second. He then made it through to Q3, showing that his performance in Melbourne was no fluke.

He’s started very impressively for a rookie, because this is probably one of the toughest seasons ever to be a rookie in F1, with so little pre-season testing and no testing during the season.

Race Day

Moving on to the actual race, Sebastien Buemi converted his 10th on pole into a P8 finish in the race itself. Sebastien Bourdais finished in P11, so Buemi once again won the battle of the STR teammates.

Again referencing an ITV article on the race, they said

Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen enjoyed a long duel, trading places several times (in between a brief spin from Lewis), but the man making the most impressive progress was Sebastien Buemi.

The Toro Rosso rookie passed Raikkonen and Trulli with the confidence of a seasoned winner, snatching fifth place from the Toyota on lap 13.

And

Buemi deservedly took the final point after his most impressive F1 performance to date, but might have done better still but for unlucky timing with the second safety car period.

Beumi was upbeat, although he could have finished higher (maybe as high as 5th), except he lost some places due to the safety car:

Toro Rosso's rookie had qualified a brilliant 10th and charged into the top five early on, battling with the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, but lost out to the one-stoppers when he had to make his first pit stop under the safety car after damaging his front wing on Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull.

More on the clash with Sebastian Vettel: One scare was when Buemi hit the race leader (and RedBull stablemate) Sebastian Vettel from behind during the heavy downpour. Luckily there was no damage to Vettel, the eventual winner of the race, but Buemi received a broken front wing. After the race Buemi said:

I didn't see him and I tried to swerve to the right, but it was not enough to avoid him. We changed the wing on my car and I'm glad I didn't spoil his race.

About the race in general, Sebastien Buemi said:

I am pleased that in three races, I have scored twice. Maybe I could have done a little bit better, but I'm happy all the same.

We were very competitive in the early stages and I got past Raikkonen and Hamilton, but after that I struggled a bit.

I think it was one of my hardest races ever.

Conclusion

It was a great weekend for Sebastien Buemi. It could have been even better had he been a little luckier, but really it was still a great result. Buemi continues to show great promise (more than most people had expected) and he's been overachieving so far. I'm sure that will continue.

Sebastien Buemi In A Spin In Sepang

Sunday's race in Sepang saw some of the worst conditions ever for a F1 Grand Prix, with a torrential downpour seeing the red flag waved and the race cut short.

At the time of the red flag, Sebastien Buemi was in 16th position, meaning that's the position he finished in. Apart from retirees Kovalainen and Kubica, he finished only in front of the two Force India cars.

Buemi had been in position 7 or 8 shortly before the red flag, but then spun off into the gravel and stalled the car, resulting in his drop to position 16. This follows a) his spin in Qualifying which saw him start the race at the back of the grid and b) a front wing change after the first lap of the race, due to being pushed wide at the exit of the last corner.

Buemi's Toro Rosso teammate, Sebasiten Bourdais managed to finish 10th and was disappointed that the race wasn't restarted, because he thought he had a chance of improving that - so Bourdais clearly won the battle of the STR teammates this time around.

The Bourdais article also carries some quotes from Buemi about the spin:

The extreme tyres were completely gone, like driving on slicks and I slowed down, but obviously not enough for the amount of water, so I spun, went into the gravel and stalled.

I am disappointed as the spin at the end was my mistake and it is on days like this that we should have picked up some points.

So all told, not a great weekend for Sebastien Buemi.

There is a lot of silver lining to the weekend: Buemi was faster than Bourdais in Practice; he drove well in the race up until the spin; he spun because of worn tyres in the extreme conditions rather than pure driver error; etc. Also, new drivers are going to make mistakes, you have to give Buemi some scope to learn and develop.

However, it's ultimately a disappointing weekend for Sebastien Buemi. I bet he will be desperate to get to the next race in Shanghai, in two weeks time, where he'll get the chance to come up with a better result.

Questions To Sebastien Buemi Answered

Over on the official Scuderia Toro Rosso website, they recently published the answers to some questions from their readers for Sebastien Buemi. It makes for very interesting reading. Here are some highlights, but get over to the STR site for the full story.

When asked about rituals and lucky charms, Buemi's answer was as follows:

I always get in and out of the car on the left-hand side I have a lucky charm that I wear around my neck, I used to the same as David Coulthard and have a pair of lucky underpants after I won in them one time. But for sure I stopped wearing them when I realized they made no difference!

Glad he ditched the underwear ritual. Not that I really needed to know about it!

There are several other questions which give some nice insight into Sebastien Buemi, including questions about living in Bahrain and following in the footsteps of Swiss F1 drivers. However, there is one question that really stands out because it is about the serious business of racing a car in Formula One:

What’s the hardest thing this weekend: getting to grips with a circuit you’ve never driven at or dealing with how an F1 works?

That's the question. The answer from Sebastien was as follows:

I found that in qualifying especially, everything happened very quickly, in terms of having to go out and do a good time, come back to the pits, think about how we can improve the car, explain what it is doing to my race engineer, fit new tyres and then go out and do it again. Getting to learn a new circuit is relatively easy and is less of a problem.

Wow, sounds like hard work. As I've said in a previous post, I'm sure it's relative. Someone like Fernando Alonso would be able to do all that and have plenty of time left over. Buemi will get to that point in his career too, but for now, it's all so new that it's probably a bit of a blur.

Anyway, I like this article about Sebastien Buemi and thought it would be worth sharing. Hope you liked it.

Back To Earth For Sebastien Buemi In Sepang

After a great start to his career as an F1 driver in Melbourne, where he became one of only 69 drivers to have scored points on debut, Sebastien Buemi came down to earth in Qualifying at Sepang.

Buemi ended up in the gravel on his final lap in Qualifying, meaning he finished in the 20th and last position and will start the race from the back of the grid. According to the ITV website, Buemi made the following comments about the incident:

On my penultimate set of tyres I was in a Q2 position and then on my final set I improved a lot in sectors one and two.

Unfortunately, in the final sector I caught the kerb and ended up in the gravel. It's a shame.

The Toro Rosso team backed Sebastien Buemi, with technical director Giorgio Ascanelli saying:

Today, Buemi made a mistake, but if a young driver doesn't make mistakes he doesn't learn, and Bourdais did a good job.

Buemi had outperformed his STR teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, in both of Friday's practice sessions, so all is not lost. He's continuing to prove that he's a very promising young F1 driver.

However, Bourdais took full advantage of Buemi's error in Qualifying, by making it through to Q2 and will start the race from 15th position.

Sebastien Buemi will need to make sure he keeps his focus during the race and puts in a solid performance. I'm backing him to do just that!

Decision To Give Sebastien Buemi STR Drive Vindicated

Yesterday, Autosport.com carried a story titled Toro Rosso vindicated by Buemi decision, in which Helmut Marko, the Red Bull Motorsport Advisor says he has been vindicated in his decision to give Sebastien Buemi a seat in the Toro Rosso car for the 2009 Formula One championship.

There have been question marks over the decision to give Buemi an F1 drive because his GP2 form was not as impressive as some of the other drivers who have made the step up. For example, Buemi didn't win the GP2 championship, like other drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, Sebastien Vettel, Nico Rosberg etc have. Many felt he was promoted to F1 prematurely.

You all know where I stand - after all, I created a blog about Sebastien Buemi, so I obviously rate him pretty highly - but even I have to acknowledge that there are some question marks.

Sebastien went some way to answering those questions and silencing any critics with his great performance in Melbourne, where he became one of only 69 drivers to have scored points on debut. I think he's shown enough to be given time to develop his potential.

Helmut Marko obviously agrees strongly. In the Autosport article, he reveals that he had to work hard to convince people within Red Bull that Buemi was ready for F1 and that he now feels vindicated in the decision:

I had to fight very hard to put him in the car. All the experts know that I made the right choice.

Sebastien Buemi also came out and had a shot at his detractors, saying:

The people who say this don't understand anything about racing. If you look at the car we had last year in GP2, and the comparison with my teammate, I was a lot better. Now being in F1, everyone knows what a Toro Rosso can do, and I could do the job.

Strong words from the pair. Whilst I agree with them and think that Buemi has the makings of a very good Formula 1 driver, it's not the time to get overexcited. He needs to keep his feet on the ground and make sure that he finishes the next race in Sepang.

The ITV form card for Sepang agrees with all of this:

Given his low-key junior record, there were doubts about whether Buemi was the right man to fill Vettel's shoes at Toro Rosso. His Melbourne performance answered a lot of those concerns, though. Buemi not only outqualified his more experienced team-mate Bourdais, but ran in the top five in the race, went wheel to wheel with Hamilton and Massa, and finished seventh. Now the challenge is to keep that great momentum going.

That sums it up nicely: doubts, great start, must keep it going.

Sebastien Buemi has to keep his head screwed on tightly. He'll need the assistance of the Toro Rosso team to do that, but I think that he's mature enough to handle the pressures of F1 without too much trouble. What do you think?