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H
e made his debut at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix only to join an elite club of 69 F1 drivers who have scored points on debut. But Sebastien Buemi had already created a buzz in the paddock with his fiery pace in pre-season testing. Filling in the race seat of a prodigious talent like Sebastian Vettel in a developing team like Toro Rosso, he made a daunting task look simpler than it actually was. Despite struggling through his first year due to car-reliability problems, Buemi now looks positively ahead to the 2010 season. F1PULSE.com caught up with the Swiss scorcher in this one-on-one interview where he reviews the season gone by, assessing his role in the team and eying the road ahead.
At the end of your first season in Formula One, how satisfied were you with your performance and what was the biggest lesson you learnt?
It was not a particularly great year for our team, but I am satisfied with most of what I did, in that I feel I improved throughout my first ever season in F1. It was always going to be tough with no in-season testing, so I just had to work very hard during the free practice sessions to learn as much as I could and prepare for qualifying and the race. The biggest lesson I learned is that F1 is the top formula because it is the hardest formula.
You were responsible for 75% of Scuderia Toro Rosso’s total points in 2009 (6 out of 8 points). Was there a lot of pressure on you being the number one driver in your very first year in the sport? Especially after Bourdais left the team?
We don't have a Number 1 and a Number 2 driver at Scuderia Toro Rosso. At the start of the year, of course Bourdais had more experience than me and then when Jaime joined, I was the more experienced one, but I had only done a handful of races at that point. I did not feel any pressure, as the team knew I was always doing my best and that is all anyone can ask.
How did you cope with the job of filling Vettel’s shoes. Did you sometimes feel that no matter how good you were, people were not going to appreciate it, after your predecessor’s phenomenal show the previous year?
I wasn't filling Vettel's shoes. I was simply the driver who joined the team after he left. I did not take any notice if people did compare me, because how can you compare one driver with quite a lot of experience with me who had very little.
Your debut race was memorable for more reasons than one. You become one of only 69 F1 drivers to score points on debut. Did you realize that you had achieved something when you were on your warm-down lap or were you too focused to think of that? Talk us through that race…
Of course, I was really thrilled that I had scored points on my first race, but I wasn't thinking about it being especially significant. I was very happy to score a point in my first race. Maybe we had a bit of luck with the accidents involving other cars, but even without that we raced quite strongly and our strategy worked well. I remember I made a mistake when I was alongside Massa, hitting the pit lane speed limiter button. I did think scoring a point in the first race took some pressure off. The team did a fantastic job considering that we had not had much testing time with the car before coming to Melbourne and it was certainly not the result I had expected at the beginning of the weekend.
Jo Siffert and Clay Regazzoni are the only Swiss drivers who have won an F1 race. Do you hope to be the next? Did you idolize these guys while growing up? Who was your favourite driver when you were young?
Of course I want to win a race and not just one! It would be nice to join the list of Swiss winners, but to be honest, although I know about Siffert and Regazzoni I was much too young to have seen them race. It’s difficult to name just one driver that I admired, but I would say Schumacher because of all his achievements. He was the most successful driver, which is why he was my favorite driver when I was small.
WATCH OUT FOR PART TWO OF THE INTERVIEW WHERE BUEMI TAKES US BACK TO THE START OF HIS CAREER, TALKS ABOUT THE 2010 RULE CHANGES AND HIS HOPES FOR THE FUTURE