Sebastien Buemi Post Melbourne News Watch

Just a quick post today to mention a couple of articles which included Sebastien Buemi.

First Sporting reflections had a write up on the race, which included Buemi as one of the weekends standouts, saying:

Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi, a 20-year old in his debut F1 race, showed a nice combination of speed, consistency and maturity - at one stage seriously challenging the Ferrari of former world champion Kimi Raikkonen - which allowed him to bring his Toro Rosso home an impressive seventh while others conspired to remove themselves from contention.

Fine praise indeed, but well deserved (in my opinion). Maturity is an interesting word, because that's a feeling I've gotten from Buemi since he arrived on the F1 scene. He handles himself very well, whether off the track or on it.

The other article was by Motor Sport Magazine, which rated the F1 drivers' performance in Melbourne. Sebastien Buemi was given 8 out of 10 along with the following comment:

A great first race for the only rookie on the grid. Stayed out of trouble and importantly beat his team-mate. 8/10

Interesting, Buemi was equal 4th based on the ratings. He was behind only Lewis Hamilton (9.5), Jenson Button (9), Nico Rosberg (8.5) and was level with Fernando Alonso (who also had 8). Fine company indeed.

Well that's all, I just wanted to share what I'd been reading about Sebasiten Buemi.

Sebastien Buemi Ignored By The Chequered Flag

I'm a big fan of the BBC's The Chequered Flag Formula 1 podcast and I've really missed it over the winter.

After a great opening race in Melbourne, which was full of great racing, clashes and which had a fairytale ending, I listened to their post race podcast with excitement. It was a great podcast as usual, but I was disappointed that they didn't find time to even mention Sebastien Buemi's great performance on debut.

I understand that there were many big stories, which have to take precedence - things such as:

• The amazing Brawn GP one two finish
• The clash between Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica, which cost them both a place on the podium (and the excellent performance of both drivers before that)
• Lewis Hamiliton's fantastic third, in a car that no one thought could make it into the points
• Toyota's charge through the pack, after starting in pit lane.
• Jarno Trulli's penalty which cost him a place on the podium
• The effectiveness of KERS in overtaking and defending positions
• Ferrari's horrible weekend

I've probably missed some stories too. So I understand that Sebastien Buemi and Toro Rosso are not going to be a big story or mentioned at the top of the podcast.

However, I'm pretty sure that last year, the Chequered Flag post race podcast went through all the F1 drivers, at least briefly. This time round they totally ignored the STR drivers (and Force India's drivers as well for that matter).

That's disappointing in it's own right, but given that Sebastien Buemi scored in his first race (one of only 69 drivers to ever do this), soundly beat his more experienced teammate, and ran as high as 4th at one point, it's disappointing that they didn't mention Buemi for his achievement.

Here's hoping that The Chequered Flag covers all the drivers in future.

Sebastien Buemi 69th F1 Driver To Score On Debut

Further to my post on Sebastien Buemi's amazing first F1 race, I read a short post from F1Fanatic, which complimented Buemi on his performance in Melbourne. The article basically says that Sebastien Buemi did a great job and that no more could have been asked of him.

The part of the article that really stood out for me (and made me write about it here) was the revelation that Sebastien Buemi is the 69th Formula 1 driver to score points in his debut race.

I knew that Buemi was amongst a select group who had scored on debut, but I had no idea how many other F1 drivers were in that group. The article also lists some of the current drivers who are also in that select group:

He is the 69th driver to score a point on his debut, joining current drivers Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock and Mark Webber.

That’s interesting, but I’m not sure it really means anything. We have a couple of World Champions (Hamilton and Raikkonen), a rising star (Vettel), some very good drivers (Webber and Rosberg), but we also Glock and Bourdais, who despite being good solid drivers, haven’t exactly set the world alight.

So what does it all mean? Probably nothing, but it’s interesting nonetheless and a good achievement by Sebastien Buemi.

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.

NY Times F1 Blog Don't Fancy Sebastien Buemi

I've just been reading the New York Times Formula 1 Blog's look at the 2009 F1 driver lineup and they aren't too flattering toward Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi.

Joe Saward from grandprix.com and Brad Spurgeon from IHT discuss him as follows:

SAWARD: I don’t understand why Buemi is there. He has won nothing significant in his career.

SPURGEON: Buemi, I think, is the first driver I can remember in the recent history of F1 to get a drive in the sport after never having won a racing car championship in his whole career. He won karting titles, but nothing in five or six years of cars! But he has Red Bull backing.

They go on to criticise Red Bull's record of choosing drivers and generally agree that Sebastien Buemi was only chosen because Red Bull have already invested so much in him.

I can't say that their views are flat out wrong, but I do think they are a little harsh.

Sure, Sebastien hasn't won a title in five or six years of cars, but he's been constantly improving, then stepping up to the next level, then improving, etc. He's not far off the pace. That's a far cry from winning championships, but I think he's got enough about him to be a successful F1 driver.

I'm not saying he'll be as good as Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel, but there's something about him that I think is promising.

Time will tell. What do you think?