Q&A with Sébastien Buemi

There’s never a dull moment in the life of an F1 driver: we caught up with Sebastien Buemi while he was on Tour Guide duties at the factory today, 26 April.

What are you doing at the moment?

I’m in Faenza for a factory tour with various athletes and Italian television station RAI is filming it all, so it’s the usual round of interviews and I’m also giving them a tour and showing them what actually goes on in a Formula One team factory.

That’s a long way to drive from Monaco for a factory visit!

Well, I’m not here just for that: there’s a new chassis that’s just been built and I’m trying it out for size, to find the best seating position and so on, as we’ve modified it a bit to make it more comfortable for the drivers, although I can’t say I found it uncomfortable so far.

What have you been up to since China?

I allowed myself a bit of a break, because it has been a very busy start to the season since before Melbourne. Then, I gradually started upping my training regime again and in fact, we’re planning to step it up a notch as from tomorrow when I get back to Monaco, to be in the best possible shape for Turkey. Not just Turkey, because there’s plenty of other things going on in May, including the launch of the circuit at Zeltweg in Austria for Red Bull. I’m also going to the Red Bull training centre in Talgau for a physical fitness check-up and after Turkey we then have Barcelona and Monaco back-to-back, so it’s going to be pretty busy with not many quiet days!

Looking at the first three grands prix, what surprised you the most?

I think we were pleasantly surprised by the tyres, as we had expected some difficulties, but it actually seemed to work quite well on that front. Certainly the races were very exciting and I have to say that the DRS – the moveable rear wing – definitely worked better, or at least had more effect, than I had expected. Everyone I spoke to kept telling me how exciting it was in China. Another nice surprise was making it to Q3 in two of the three qualifying sessions so far. So it proves we have made progress and that’s an incentive to keep on working like this and to score more points in the races. In Turkey, we will have a few small improvements so we have to make the most of them to move forward.

The fans seem to like the new tyres, the DRS and Kers: has it been more fun in the cockpit?

Yeah, I’m sure it’s great for them, with more pit stops and then in China, with the very long straight, the Downforce Reduction System really came into its own and you could use it a lot so we had some great passing moves. But it’s too early to make a true judgment and we will have to wait and see how it works at other tracks and for example at Monaco there is talk of banning it, although that track is usually exciting enough anyway! I think we will see more passing moves in Turkey, as the track there also has a long straight.