Sebastien Buemi Interview On Formula1.com

Last week, following another performance where the Toro Rosso STR4 was obviously off the pace, Sebastien Buemi gave an interview on the official Formula 1 website.

It's a very interesting read. I cover some of the major points here, but I recommend reading the interview in full.

One thing that took me by surprise was the revelation that Sebastien Buemi's F1 career was over 100 days old. It really doesn't seem like that much time has gone past. The fact also took Buemi by surprise!

Buemi discussed the major upgrade that Toro Rosso will deliver for the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, confirming that it will include the much talked about double deck diffuser. They'll also get a new nose, along with many other changes (he says "almost half the car will be new").

Buemi is confident that these upgrades will allow Toro Rosso to catch up with the teams they were beating at the beginning of the season, all of whom have had major upgrades and who are all now running double deck diffusers.

When Buemi was asked how being an F1 driver had changed his life, he gave a very grounded response:

Maybe from the outside it looks like a big change but in the end I'm doing what I've always done in my career - racing. It’s true the cars are faster, the motor homes are bigger and the media attention soars, but the job is still the same. And you don't really think about all those by-products, as racing is what got me here and that is what I do.

I've always had the impression that Sebastien is a very level headed young man.

Buemi also gave an interesting response when asked about whether being ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and just two points behind McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was some compensation for not scoring:

No - nothing compensates for not scoring, but it is interesting to see that if you don't have the car, you don't score points. We just have to work hard to be able to bring a good car to Budapest and from there on, it should run smoother.

Once again, this is a very grounded answer. Buemi focuses on what they need to do to improve rather than dwelling on the fact that he's in good company.

Finally, when asked about the rumours of a new teammate in Budapest, Buemi responds:

I'm not aware of any changes. I try to concentrate on myself. The rest is not important for me and in the end it is a team management decision.

A very good answer politically speaking. Of course Buemi does now have a new teammate, with Sebastien Bourdais being replaced by Jamie Alguersuari in recent days. At last Buemi is the only Sebastien on the team! But I'll leave talk about the replacement for another blog post.