Zitat"Sébastien Buemi: “Easier to fly to the Moon!”
12/06/2012 12:31/lemanslive.com
Sébastien Buemi grew up racing single-seaters and in the world of Formula 1. The Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota Racing is a completely fresh experience for him. LeMansLive caught up with him at scrutineering.
“You show up in a town centre with your racing licence and helmet, and they weigh you. You’re in the middle of spectators, they’re calling you by your first name and you’re signing autographs all the time. You don’t get that in F1. It’s moments like this that make you realise that motor racing can be close to the public, too.”
As Red Bull Racing’s reserve driver, Sébastien Buemi, 23, was in Canada last weekend. “Honestly, I didn’t expect this sort of atmosphere at scrutineering, but I like it. I’m looking forward to the Drivers’ parade, as well.”
Although his grandfather Georges Gachnang raced at Le Mans in 1960, the Swiss driver never really took an interest in it. “My first experience of the complete circuit was at the official Test Day a little more than a week ago. Prior to that I had only raced at the shorter Bugatti-Le Mans track in Formula 3. I got caught in a tangle at the start. At the Test Day, I did a recce lap with Anthony [Davidson] who talked me through it, turn by turn. Since signing for Toyota Racing for this race, my team-mates keep telling me how dangerous Le Mans can be. There was a moment when it thought it would be easier to fly to the Moon!
“It’s quite strange to share your car with two other drivers, as a team. For example, the team changed the seat a number of times so that it suited everybody. The aim is to feel comfortable behind the wheel, but also to be able to get out of the car quickly during pit-stops.
“The toughest challenge on the track is the traffic, of course. You need to be able to judge the speed differences between the cars through the fast turns and know when it is safe to pass. I’ve still got a great deal to learn on that front. Apart from that, I think I’m ready. When you’ve raced in F1, speed isn’t a problem, but I haven’t driven here at night yet. I lapped in darkness at Le Castellet and Aragon during testing and it’s quite difficult. Here at Le Mans,, though, many of the corners are floodlit.
“I feel confident. Thanks to the experience of my team-mates who used to race for Peugeot, like Anthony, Alex and Stéphane, plus the guys at Oreca, we’re not starting from a blank sheet of paper. I think we will have some fans, too. Mark Webber said he would follow my race. I think Le Mans is a competition which continues to fascinate everyone in F1.”
ZitatToyota's Le Mans rookie Sebastien Buemi confident of being straight on the pace in night conditions
Thursday, June 14th 2012, 15:58 GMT/Autosport
Le Mans rookie Sebastien Buemi is confident he can get straight on the pace in night conditions despite his current lack of mileage.
The former Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver has only completed three laps in the dark for Toyota at Le Mans so far as team-mates Anthony Davidson and Stephane Sarrazin took priority in Wednesday night's first qualifying session after an engine issue ruled the car out of most of free practice.
"Stephane didn't drive at the official test [due to injury] so that is why he had more running yesterday, and Anthony is going for the qualifying, so that took a bit more running away from me," Buemi told AUTOSPORT.
"But I don't think it's a big setback because we could see the data of the other car and what they were running. It's still pretty good considering the preparation we had.
"I'm new here and when you break the engine in the first session and don't drive, it's obviously not good. This is not a circuit that you can drive every day. But this is racing and you have to live with that."
Buemi only had three laps of night-time running, but said he was encouraged by how close he immediately got to Davidson's pace.
"On the in-lap I was on a very good lap, so I pushed because you know when you have three laps you just try to maximise everything," said Buemi.
"On my in-lap I would have been only half a second away from Anthony and it was my third lap on old tyres. It was good. He had some traffic as well, but it was good for me to see that I only need a few laps and I'm there."
While happy with his pace, Buemi admitted that he was still learning about Le Mans traffic.
"The biggest thing is how you deal with the traffic - how much time you lose, how much risk you take," he said. "If you are too kind, you will lose too much time. If you take too much risk, you might crash."
ZitatSébastien Buemi: “It was an unbelievable day for me to start Le Mans for the first time and we gave a great performance until the accident. The car was really quick and we were giving the leaders a lot of problems. So that is definitely the positive to take out of this race for us because it shows we already have a very strong car. This should give a lot of motivation and excitement to the team. It was amazing; I really enjoyed it. The team worked so hard and we deserved much better than what we got but at least we showed what we are capable of by leading the race. For Anthony I am really disappointed; we look forward to him being back as soon as possible.”
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Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:11 pm
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