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.

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.

Sebastien Buemi - Bahrain And Spanish Grand Prixs

This is a little bit of a catch up post. I've been off for about a month and although I've been keeping up with Formula 1 and watched the races, I haven't been able to blog about them. :(

I'm back now (obviously) and rather than try to catch up on the Bahrain and Spanish Grand Prixs in great detail, I thought I'd just give a brief rundown on Sebastien Buemi's performance in those two races.

Bahrain Grand Prix

Sebastien Buemi was eliminated in Q1 at Bahrain, but he managed to out qualify his Toro Rosso teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, finishing in P16 as opposed to Bourdais' P20. However, Buemi felt that he should have performed better, blaming himself for not making it through to Q2:

It should have been much better and I ought to have comfortably got through to Q2, but I made a mistake in the third sector

In the race, Bourdais turned the battle of the teammates around, finishing in P13, while Buemi finished in P17. This was Buemi's worst result in his short career (to that point - we'll get to what happened in Spain soon).

Apparantly Buemi's car picked up some debri on Lap 1 which affected his race, with Franz Tost saying:

Unfortunately, a piece of debris from a BMW ended up wedged on his front wing, which meant he suffered with understeer

All in all, not a great weekend for Sebastien Buemi in Bahrain (but better than Spain!).

Spanish Grand Prix

Sebastien Buemi got off to a decent start in Barcelona, qualifying in P15, in front of his teammate Bourdais who qualified in P17. Buemi got out of Q1 and into Q2, while Bourdai didn't. However, Buemi said that STR were hoping for more than that. He went off the track and encountered some traffic, which meant he finished a couple of places lower than he could have.

In the race, Buemi only lasted until the second corner of the first lap, when his teammate Bourdais crashed into the back of him. Buemi had to break sharply to avoid the crash between Jarno Trulli's Toyota and Adrian Sutil's Force India car, which occurred immediately in front of him. Bourdais saw cars slowing down but said there was nothing he could do.

Buemi said the following of the accident:

Then, at the exit of the second corner, Trulli spun and I had to brake to avoid him. My team mate did not see I was slowing down and could not avoid me. His car went over mine, I saw his tyre go over my head and that was it.

Ultimately, it was a very disappointing weekend for Buemi (his first retirement), although it wasn't his fault. Of course, as both Buemi and Franz Tost admitted, if he'd qualified higher, he would have been more likely to avoid being caught up in the accident. Still you can't really blame Sebastien Buemi for what happened.

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.

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!

Sebastien Buemi Scores Points In First F1 Grand Prix

Sebastien Buemi scored points in his debut Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne today, finishing in 8th place, then getting promoted to 7th place when Jarno Trulli was penalised for overtaking Lewis Hamilton while the safety car was out.

In the words of the BBC commentators, Sebastien Buemi did a:

spectacularly good jobs for a rookie.

Sebastien Finishes 6th - False Alarm

I got a little excited when the TV shots seemed to show BUE in 6th place shortly after the finish. I thought that perhaps Sebastien had managed to overtake a couple of cars in the short run to the finish line, after the safety car left the circuit.

However, that was incorrect - I guess it must have showed that way because Sebastien overtook some drivers after the receiving the chequered flag.

The Battle With Buemi's STR Teammate

Sebastien won his battle with his Toro Rosso teammate Sebastien Bourdais, although it was a close thing. Bourdais managed to finish 8th (after Jarno Trulli's penalty), only one place and 0.2 seconds behind Buemi.

Having said that, Bourdais was helped by the yellow flag at the end of the race and was well behind Buemi for most of the race. The BBC commentators said that Buemi was:

making Bourdais look like a bit of a monkey.

That's a bit much, but it's true that he did much better than Bourdais for much of the race.

As for the poll we held, about which STR driver would finish first at Melbourne, we only had 4 votes, 3 of which were for Sebastien Buemi (the other one was for One driver won't finish).

Lack Of Air Time For Sebastien Buemi

Quite predictably, Sebastien received very little air time, with all the attention up the front of the race, on Brawn GP, and the other contenders.

Sebastien did pop up a couple of times, including when he was holding off Nico Rosberg's Williams (inspiring the comment above) and late in the race when Timo Glock's Toyota went around him rather easily (turns out Buemi's soft compound tyres were degrading very badly by then).

There have been several stories in press about Sebastien's excellent result, including Buemi never expected points on debut and Buemi makes his point.

Could Sebastien Buemi Be Promoted To 3rd Place?

Don't forget that several teams have appealed against the ruling by stewards that the diffusers of Brawn, Toyota and Williams are legal. If the appeal was upheld and the diffusers were declared illegal, there exists a possibility, however unlikely, that those three teams would be stripped of their points.

If that were to happen, Lewis Hamilton would be the winner, Fernando Alonso would finished second and Sebastien Buemi would be third!

Whilst that would be amazing for Sebastien, I think it would be highly unlikely that the sport's governing body would be that harsh with any punishment, even if the appeal was upheld. It would also be a terrible shame for the sport after the good news story of Brawn GP winning after coming so close to extinction. Races should be won on the road, not in the court room.

Still it's worth mentioning as a possible, if highly unlikely, scenario.

Final Thoughts

It was a great start to Sebastien Buemi's career as an F1 driver. He kept his head, drove well and made the most of his situation. Scoring points was beyond anyone's expectation. Good work Sebastien!

Sebastien Buemi Qualifies 16th In Melbourne

Sebastien Buemi qualified 16th for his first Formula 1 Grand Prix, in Melbourne Australia. Although for many F1 drivers, 16th would not be considered particularly good, it was actually a very promising result for Sebastien.

First, Sebastien came within a hair's breadth of making it through to Q2. He finished just 0.05 seconds behind Lewis Hamiliton. Had he managed to knock Lewis Hamilton out, it would have been a huge result for the rookie.

Second, and most importantly, Sebastien finished ahead of his STR teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, who qualified in the 20th and last position. Given that the car is not capable of challenging the leaders of the pack at the moment, Sebastien Buemi's main race is with his more experienced teammate. If you've missed it, there's a poll in the sidebar about which Toro Rosso driver will finish first in Melbourne.

Sebastien Buemi Boosted By Qualifying Form

According the ITV website, Sebastian Buemi was boosted by his qualifying form. The article carried several quotes from Sebastien:

I think we did quite a good job with what we had and missed out on Q2 by half a tenth

I am quite happy, as these days have been something of a test session for us and we improved the car quite a lot from yesterday morning through to now.

As Sebastien points out, STR are behind the other teams because of the limited testing they managed in the STR4 over the break. They are also waiting on some 'fresh development parts', so the fact that Sebastien almost made it into Q2 on his first attempt was positive news for the team.

Buemi also talks about what his first Qualifying session was like:

I have to say I found the pace at which qualifying happens rather quick!

You go out, you come back, you change tyres, you go out again.

You need to stay relaxed.

For a spectator, it's all pretty fast paced. A lot goes on in a short time. For an F1 driver, it would be unimaginably hectic.

I'm sure experienced drivers such as Fernando Alonso, are cool calm and collected, because they've don't it so often and they can focus their concentration with intensity on the areas which really need it, without being distracted.

For a new driver such as Sebastien Buemi, it must be a confusing experience with so many things going on and distractions.

To out-qualify his more experienced teammate and to almost go through to Q2 is a great result for Sebastien Buemi. I hope he has a good and clean race tomorrow and once again beats Bourdais - that would be another very good result for him.

Sebastien Buemi - Melbourne Grand Prix - Friday Practice

The big news coming out of the practice sessions on Friday 27th March at the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix was the surprising pace of the Williams team. Not many people were expecting that! For me however, as much as I'd like to see a grand old team like Williams become successful again, my main focus is on Sebastien Buemi.

Sebastien Buemi was the first driver to complete a lap in P1, meaning he was in position 1 for a very brief amount of time. I know that means less than nothing, but must have been a good feeling for him to see his time up there.

Unfortunately however, Sebastien finished P2 with the slowest time, a couple of seconds behind the Williams, and had this to say (from www.formula1.com):

My first F1 practice session and I had a lot of new things to learn and to deal with. It was not too bad, we tried various changes and improved the car lap by lap. The second session got off to quite a good start, but later we had some difficulty with finding the right set-up. Given our lack of testing with this car, today was like a test session which we used to learn more about the car. It’s my first time at this circuit and I still need to get used to it and I learned a lot, but there is still plenty to do to improve tomorrow.

In the battle with his STR teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, Buemi finished the day slightly behind. Bourdais finished in position 16, four places and about 0.6 seconds better than Sebastien Buemi. However, in P1, the roles were reversed, with Sebastien Buemi in position 15 and Bourdais in position 19, 0.7 seconds behind.

At the end of the day, it doesn't mean much - Qualifying tomorrow is much more important. It's shaping up to be a hard session for Sebastien Buemi and Toro Rosso, with it looking like they'll struggle to get into Q2.