ITV Interview With Franz Tost And Giorgio Ascanelli

The ITV website recently carried an interview with Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost and technical director Giorgio Ascanelli. As one of the STR drivers, Sebastien Buemi was focal to the discussion. Here I give a run down on what was said relating to Buemi.

Obviously Sebastien Buemi was discussed in detail, with a question asking how they rated Buemi's performance. I'll quote the response by Franz Tost in full:

Buemi has done a really good job so far. You have to consider that, as the only rookie on the grid this year, he is the first real victim of the in-season testing ban.

He had therefore never driven at circuits like Silverstone or the Nurburgring in a Formula 1 car, which is completely different to tackling them in other types of car.

While he knows the tracks from Formula 3 or GP2, it is not at all the same, because F1 is much more complex and little details like how track conditions usually change from the third free practice session on Saturday morning to qualifying that same afternoon, are all part of the package that only comes with experience.

Up until this year, we would have done a minimum of three days testing at Silverstone, for example, prior to the British Grand Prix and at many other race venues.

But you can’t have everything and while we are saving money through not testing, the downside is that young drivers will suffer.

What we can say is that Buemi will be a much more complete driver for the 2010 season.

This is a promising sign for Sebastien Buemi, especially in the same week where Toro Rosso sacked Sebastien Bordais for alleged under-performance.

Most people would agree that on balance Buemi has outperformed Bourdais over the course of the season so far. However, his results haven't been great - mostly due to an under performing car rather than his skills - and Toro Rosso are getting a reputation for sacking people (Bourdais, Liuzzi, Speed).

Tost also admitted that they've greatly missed Sebastien Vettel, who moved on to STR's parent team Red Bull at the start of the year.

There's a worry that Buemi will be compared to Vettel's performance last year, which is unfair for a number of reasons: Vettel had experience as a tester in an F1 car going into last year, while Buemi has had very little testing time and no one can deny that the car this year is slower than it's rivals.

Tost's response shows that Toro Rosso know that Buemi has been a victim of the in-season testing ban and that he won't mature as quickly as other drivers have been able to in the past. It also implies that STR believe in Sebastien Buemi and will stick with him going into the 2010 season.

Later in the interview, when Giorgio Ascanelli was discussing the reasons why Toro Rosso have struggled, he brought up Buemi's inexperience as one of the reasons (in that it's harder for him to adapt to changes to the car).

When asked it that was a criticism of Buemi, Ascanelli said "absolutely not" and re-iterated that Buemi's only had limited time in an F1 car and that they couldn't expect any more of him, saying:

We cannot expect him to learn any faster: he is trying his best and doing a good job.

The interview also included discussion about why Toro Rosso have struggled this year and the upgrades that the STR4 will receive in the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.

When asked why STR have struggled, Franz Tost indicated that for financial reasons they made a conscious decision to delay major updates to the car and bundle them into one major update package (the one coming in the next GP). As a result, Toro Rosso have fallen behind the other teams, who have all added major updates to their cars. For example, Tost points out that Toro Rosso are the only team on the grid not to have included a double deck diffuser.

This explains why the recent races have been so much of a struggle for Toro Rosso and Sebastien Buemi. Hopefully the coming updates will make the STR4 competitive again and give Buemi a chance to challenge for points.

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.

Sebastien Buemi Out In Q1 At German Grand Prix

Sebastien Buemi has just been knocked out in the first Qualifying session at the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

Buemi will start from position 17 in tomorrow's race (barring any unforeseen penalties to the other drivers).

The good news for Buemi is that once again he will start the race in front of his Toro Rosso teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, who qualified dead last in P20.

Not a good day for the STR team, but at least Buemi can take some comfort in the fact that he is maintaining the upper hand over his more experienced teammate.

Hopefully Sebastien Buemi will be able to finish tomorrow's race in front of Bourdais and push his way further up the field - it's likely to be a tough race however.

Disappointing Weekend For Buemi At Silverstone

It was another disappointing weekend for Sebastien Buemi at Silverstone. His performance was reasonable, but the STR4 just wasn't fast enough.

Toro Rosso have struggled to find pace in recent races and there was little change at the British Grand Prix. The STR4 may have been slightly faster thanks to some upgrades, but it didn't improve relative to the other teams, who also made upgrades.

Buemi also encountered difficulties during Qualifying, which meant he qualified last. First, he missed most of Final Practice with a hydraulic issue, then had a problem with his gearbox's quick-shift function during Qualifying itself.

Afterwards, Buemi said:

It's been a bad weekend so far, with a few small problems and if you don't get many clean laps without any trouble, then when you go into qualifying, you really pay the price.

It is disappointing that I couldn't use the quick-shift on the gearbox in qualifying, which cost me at least three tenths and that is a big difference here.

But that's racing and now we will have to see what we can do tomorrow. It will be a difficult race whatever happens.

Prophetic words.

Buemi had a difficult race, finishing dead last (of those who finished in a classified position).

He started on the back row of the grid, where he was in good company - he lined up next to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion who's fortunes have taken a turn for the worse this year.

Interestingly, the other Toro Rosso (Sebastien Bourdais) and the other McLaren (Heikki Kovalainen) ended up taking each other out, but that's another story.

During the race, Buemi's car had problems with maintaining speed on worn tyres, which seemed to be the main cause of the STR4's lack of speed. After the race, he said:

It was a very tough race and we struggled to be on the pace and now we must try and work out why, as we have been quicker than this earlier in the weekend.

On worn tyres especially, the car was very difficult to drive.

This problem, combined with his low position on the grid, meant that Buemi really struggled during the race.

Still, apart from the slow car, Buemi himself did reasonably well at Silverstone. He drove a solid race with few errors and the mere fact that he finished the race shouldn't be overlooked. It was his second race in a row where he made it to the finish line, after a run of three grand prixs where he didn't finish.

Looking forward, it seems Toro Rosso aren't expecting much improvement for the next race in Germany, with Buemi saying:

Nurburgring will be another difficult weekend, but we are due to get some updates for Hungary, which will allow us to be more competitive and perform much better.

Let's hope those updates when they come through in the following race in Hungary, give Sebastien Buemi a substantial boost in performance.

Catching Up On Sebastien Buemi Before Turkish Grand Prix

In the lead in to the Turkish Grand Prix, I want to have a quick look at some of the news about Sebastien Buemi over the last week or two.

Buemi Not Beating Himself Up

First, there was the Buemi not 'beating himself up' over rookie growing pains article, where Sebastien faced up to his setbacks over the last few races. As the article points out:

the young Swiss ace's tally from the last three races in Bahrain, Spain and Monaco has read 17th-DNF-DNF respectively

In particular, the last two races have been very tough for Buemi. First, his STR teammate Sebastien Bourdais ran into the back of him in Barcelona, then it was Buemi's turn, punting out Renault's Nelsinho Piquet at Monaco.

However, Buemi is remaining positive, as seen by his following comments:

I've had three difficult weekends in the last three races. In Bahrain I was unlucky to pick up a piece of Kubica's car that got wedged in my front wing, in Spain someone drove into me and in Monaco I made a mistake. At the moment when these things happen, I find them hard to deal with, but afterwards I don't let them bother me. I tell myself I'm in Formula 1 trying to do the best I can, so there is no point in beating yourself up over what's happened.

He then looks forward to doing better in Turkey. Let's hope he does! Bring it on!

Turkey Grand Prix - Practice

As reported by ITV, Beumi had a tough Istanbul baptism, failing to get the best out of his Toro Rosso car, and finishing last in the time for both Practice sessions.

Buemi made the following comments following Practice:

My first day in an F1 car at this track was a very difficult one.

On the plus side, we had no mechanical problems, so we did a high mileage.

That means at least we have a lot of data to analyse to work out why we are slow and hopefully find a better set-up for tomorrow.

At the moment, it’s difficult to say where we are, although obviously we are not where we want to be.

The main problem today was that we could not get the most out of the tyres.

Compared to the others, we are not too bad on a long run, but on new tyres, it wasn’t working one hundred percent.”

Okay, so something wrong with the setup and problems with the tyres. It's not promising to be a good weekend for Sebastien Buemi.

After his last three races, he really could do with a positive performance at Istanbul, but it's looking like he's not going to get it.

Turkish Grand Prix - Qualifying

Qualifying is not long finished at Istanbul and there's not much to report for Sebastien Buemi.

Buemi was knocked out in Q1 and will start in position 18 on the grid in tomorrow's race. Compared to most of his Qualifying performances this year, that's rather disappointing. Then again, it's only to be expected following his difficulties getting the best out of his car in Practice.

There was a silver lining to the cloud: Once again, Sebastien Buemi out-qualified his Toro Rosso teammate Sebastien Bourdais, who finished last in P20.

I guess under the circumstances, Buemi has to be aiming to a) finish the race and b) finish in front of his teammate.

If he can do that, it will be a successful weekend for him, even if his final position isn't that great. We'll have to wait and see if he can do that - bring on tomorrow!

Fallout From Sebastien Buemi Ramming Nelson Piquet

As per my previous post during the Monaco Grand Prix, Sebastien Buemi ran into the back of Nelson Piquet on Lap 11, resulting in the retirement of both drivers.

There was no doubt that the accident was caused by Buemi. After the race, Buemi apologised to Piquet for the incident, saying:

I was right up behind Piquet, in his slipstream and when I tried to pull out and make my move he went on the brakes and I could not get out from behind him, so I ended up pushing him all the way into the first corner.

I am sorry about this and I went and apologised to him.

Nelson Piquet however has been less than gracious in his response, saying that 'Young' Buemi cost him seventh place:

I'm very angry because Monaco's a long race and that's why these young drivers need to be careful with what they're doing.

I don't know what he was thinking there - we planned a long first stint and, if it wasn't for the crash, I could have ended up in seventh.

I understand that Piquet is under a lot of pressure, with rumours that he will lose his place in the Renault team. However, I don't think Piquet has helped himself with the response.

The reaction to Piquet's comments is mostly incredulous. Piquet seems to be throwing stones, when he obviously lives in a glasshouse. He's only a couple of years older than Buemi and he has made many 'young' driver errors himself over the last season and half.

By all means, he can criticize Buemi for costing him the chance to finish (although many cynical commentators have pointed out that he was no certainty to finish the race, given his own record of crashing out), but he hasn't earned the right to take the stance he has in criticizing young drivers. He's still one himself.

At least Sebastien Buemi's team boss Franz Tost reacted reasonably well. Although frustrated by the mistake, Tost said:

As usual at this track, you end up in the barriers if you don’t have the discipline to wait a little bit. But, in Buemi’s defence, he did a really good job in qualifying and I see today’s incident as another step in his learning process.

On a side note, I thought that I was 'live blogging' the accident, but it turns out that Channel 10 here in Australia was delaying the race by 30 minutes or so. As a result, it wasn't as 'live' as I thought. :(

In good news for Toro Rosso, Buemi's teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, finished 7th for the team. Had Buemi managed to stay out of trouble, he would likely have been in the same region as Bourdais, which shows the STR car is doing fairly well.

However, Buemi did make the error and will be disappointed with the crash in Monaco. He needs to puts this behind him and look forward to the next race now, but he will be very keen to finish the race in Istanbul.

Sebastien Buemi Out On Lap 10 At Monaco

I'm watching the Monaco Grand Prix as I type, and Sebastien Buemi has just gone out on Lap 10.

Details are a bit sketchy at this point, but it seems that Buemi went into the back of Nelson Piquet, forcing them both into the wall. Both driver have retired as a result of the clash. It appears that the incident was caused by Buemi.

It's a real pity for Buemi, who looked to be geared up for a positive weekend, qualifying 11th, almost making Q3 and out-qualifying his STR teammate yet again.

Yet's it's all for nothing. Welcome to Monaco, Sebastien.