Sebastien Buemi | Profile of the young F1 driver for Switzerland

Sebastien Buemi

Team: Scuderia Toro Rosso
F1 Debut: 2009 - Australian Grand Prix

Sebastien Buemi started his racing career in German Formula BMW, before moving into Formula 3, A1GP, and GP2 as part of Red Bull's young driver program. Although Buemi never won any championships in the junior categories he was always competitive so it was no surprise that Red Bull made him their test driver in 2008.

In order to prepare for his F1 debut with Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2009, Red Bull cannily arranged to have Buemi drive the FIA medical car at selected F1 races towards the end of 2008. Although there is nothing Buemi could learn about driving an F1 machine from a Mercedes estate car, it did allow him to learn a few of the circuits and to take part in the routine of a full Grand Prix weekend.

Buemi impressed on debut with Toro Rosso last year and outperformed both Sebastian Bourdais and Jaime Algersuari who joined him as teammates. He scored six of Toro Rosso's eight points and earned a second year with the team in 2010. Buemi has his sights on a Red Bull drive in the near future, although his chances of getting a seat ahead of Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen are fairly slim.

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