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?