Sebastien Buemi says that Scuderia Toro Rosso should be more competitive in Valencia than Montreal, thanks to the move to a higher downforce spec for the Spanish venue.
Although the Swiss driver put in a feisty drive to eighth in the actual race in Canada, he and team mate Jaime Alguersuari could not better 15th and 16th in qualifying, as the team appeared to lose out to its regular rivals on pure speed.
“I think in terms of pure lap time Valenecia should be better for us because we drive with more downforce,” Buemi told this blog. “When we use more downforce we seem to be a little bit more competitive. In Montreal we seemed to take a step back on low fuel, compared to the Williams and the Mercedes. Next time we should again be close to the Williams.”
Buemi put in a great performance in Montreal, briefly getting into the lead when he started on prime tyres and stayed out after a long first stint.
“It was a lot better than the last few races. Finally everything went well, from the start to the pit stop strategy. I’ve been really unlucky this year, so it was a really good result and the team did a really good job. They did fantastic work with the strategy. They made difficult calls, and the pit stops were all fine. Sometimes with so many pit stops you can lose a lot of time, and it was not the case.
“I started on the prime, and it had a lot less degradation. It was my idea. The engineers were pushing for the option to start with, and I was really pushing for the prime, so I’m really happy that it turned the right way. I was lucky on the first lap to come a little bit through the incident, which was not really the case in the last races. This time I had no issues.”
Buemi’s Montreal adventure even included a pass on Michael Schumacher: “It looked good, I think! We were really quick on the straight, and lucky to have less wing. I could exit the chicane better than him and then take the slipstream and pass him. I was running with Alonso and Hamilton at the beginning, and I had to close them. It was really good fun, finally a really good race. It was important for me, and to have four points is really good.”
Adam Cooper F1 