- 13 Jan 09, 16:42#87607
Some more news now from the Red Bull camp:
Buemi staying realistic for debut season
By Pablo Elizalde Tuesday, January 13th 2009, 12:13 GMT
Sebastien Buemi says he is under no illusions about the difficulty of the task he faces during his rookie Formula One season.
The 20-year-old Swiss will make his grand prix debut in Australia in March after being confirmed as one of the racing drivers of the Faenza-based squad.
Although the man he replaces, Sebastian Vettel, won a race last year with Toro Rosso, Buemi admits he is expecting a though first year.
"You have to be realistic," Buemi told the Toro Rosso website. "You have to have self-confidence and put yourself in the best possible situation. But you have to keep your feet on the ground and not get depressed if the results don't come immediately.
"It will be a tough season and everyone in the team will be working hard to make progress with the car in a discipline that represents the highest form of motor sport. In the lower formulae, if you did a good job, then the results would follow, but in F1, that is not automatically the case.
"Winning in F1 is very difficult and that is part of the game. But you cannot just settle for aiming for a twelfth place; that would be absurd. You have to set yourself a very high standard, but without exaggerating. I won't be world champion in my first year!"
The Swiss said he had no preferences over his teammate, with Toro Rosso yet to confirm who will partner him in 2009.
"For me, the important thing is to be in F1 and I don't mind who will be my teammate," Buemi said.
"Of course, I will want to beat him and to be as competitive as possible. Maybe if he has a lot of experience, I will be able to learn and progress more quickly from watching him."
Buemi admitted, however, that his first goal will be to beat whoever the team chose for the second seat.
"Before we see where everyone is in the Australian Grand Prix, it is hard to set targets, as there might be some early season surprises. The team will be aiming to do at least as well as in 2008, but that will be tough. For me personally, I would at least want to be quicker than my teammate."
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72754
______________________________________________________
Webber confident he will be up to speed
By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, January 13th 2009, 15:37 GMT
Mark Webber is confident that his form will not suffer in 2009 because of the leg-breaking accident he had at the end of last year.
The Australian broke his right leg in a bicycle accident during his Tasmanian challenge - and is not scheduled to get back into the Formula One cockpit until next month.
However, despite the lengthy lay-off, Webber thinks he should be quickly up to speed - and able to provide a strong enough challenge to new teammate Sebastian Vettel.
"I'm going to learn a lot when I drive the car for the first time," Webber wrote in his official column for the BBC. "I am extremely confident things will be right but if I have to adjust a few things if I get any soreness in the leg, then I will.
"I do not think I will be disadvantaged as a result of breaking my leg and I can tell you now that I will not be using it as an excuse in Melbourne. I will be there ready to go."
Webber's return to action coincides with the launch of Red Bull's new car - with the team being one of the last to unveil their 2009 machine.
Although Webber concedes that launching so late is not ideal, because of the limited time it gives the team to iron out reliability problems, he thinks there is still enough time for them to get on top of any issues.
"We are the last of the major teams to launch our car - on 9 February," he said. "That probably helps me in the sense that I will be in better shape by the time we run it for the first time but it might not be the best solution overall.
"Come the third or fourth race would we have preferred to have that extra 600-800km on the car? Some would argue yes.
"But there is a lot of stuff you can do now to make sure the cars are reliable - and we had very good mechanical reliability last year. We only had one failure - on my car in Singapore. The other one, in Germany, was a holed radiator from a stone.
"If we can keep that sort of reliability up with this car, then our chief technical officer Adrian Newey's decision to delay the launch to give him more development time to get a bit more performance out of the car could be a good one."
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72758
__________________________________________________________________________
Vettel: No problem adapting to Red Bull
By Edd Straw Tuesday, January 13th 2009, 13:56 GMT
Sebastian Vettel says he is not worried about having to adapt to working with a new team in 2009 after moving to Red Bull Racing from Scuderia Toro Rosso.
The 21-year-old German enjoyed a strong relationship with STR team principal Franz Tost, technical director Giorgio Ascanelli and then-team co-owner Gerhard Berger at the Faenza-based outfit, but is enjoying the challenge of getting used to working with the staff at Red Bull Racing.
"I have to build new relationships with different people, but I'm not worried," Vettel told autosport.com. "There are many more people working here at Red Bull, and there a lot of people with great potential.
"It's still a young team and it will take time to meld together but I'm extremely confident.
"I felt very comfortable at Toro Rosso. We created something that was very unique and very special with Gerhard, Franz and Giorgio and we did the best we could.
"Red Bull is a new team for me. We may have the same parent company, but it's a completely different environment, atmosphere and philosophy. These things you need to get used to. Red Bull Racing has a lot of potential and it is up to us, as team and driver, to produce it."
The 2008 Italian Grand Prix winner is also confident that the upgrades Red Bull Racing engine suppliers Renault have been allowed to make to their V8 engine will help the team.
"The fact that Renault is allowed to do something to its engine will certainly be no disadvantage and will only help us.
"But to be honest the differences between the engines last year were quite limited. I don't think that just one thing will make a difference. F1 is all about details - it's about the whole car."
Vettel is due to return to testing action at Jerez next month after the new Red Bull RB5 is unveiled on February 9.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72757
Buemi staying realistic for debut season
By Pablo Elizalde Tuesday, January 13th 2009, 12:13 GMT
Sebastien Buemi says he is under no illusions about the difficulty of the task he faces during his rookie Formula One season.
The 20-year-old Swiss will make his grand prix debut in Australia in March after being confirmed as one of the racing drivers of the Faenza-based squad.
Although the man he replaces, Sebastian Vettel, won a race last year with Toro Rosso, Buemi admits he is expecting a though first year.
"You have to be realistic," Buemi told the Toro Rosso website. "You have to have self-confidence and put yourself in the best possible situation. But you have to keep your feet on the ground and not get depressed if the results don't come immediately.
"It will be a tough season and everyone in the team will be working hard to make progress with the car in a discipline that represents the highest form of motor sport. In the lower formulae, if you did a good job, then the results would follow, but in F1, that is not automatically the case.
"Winning in F1 is very difficult and that is part of the game. But you cannot just settle for aiming for a twelfth place; that would be absurd. You have to set yourself a very high standard, but without exaggerating. I won't be world champion in my first year!"
The Swiss said he had no preferences over his teammate, with Toro Rosso yet to confirm who will partner him in 2009.
"For me, the important thing is to be in F1 and I don't mind who will be my teammate," Buemi said.
"Of course, I will want to beat him and to be as competitive as possible. Maybe if he has a lot of experience, I will be able to learn and progress more quickly from watching him."
Buemi admitted, however, that his first goal will be to beat whoever the team chose for the second seat.
"Before we see where everyone is in the Australian Grand Prix, it is hard to set targets, as there might be some early season surprises. The team will be aiming to do at least as well as in 2008, but that will be tough. For me personally, I would at least want to be quicker than my teammate."
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72754
______________________________________________________
Webber confident he will be up to speed
By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, January 13th 2009, 15:37 GMT
Mark Webber is confident that his form will not suffer in 2009 because of the leg-breaking accident he had at the end of last year.
The Australian broke his right leg in a bicycle accident during his Tasmanian challenge - and is not scheduled to get back into the Formula One cockpit until next month.
However, despite the lengthy lay-off, Webber thinks he should be quickly up to speed - and able to provide a strong enough challenge to new teammate Sebastian Vettel.
"I'm going to learn a lot when I drive the car for the first time," Webber wrote in his official column for the BBC. "I am extremely confident things will be right but if I have to adjust a few things if I get any soreness in the leg, then I will.
"I do not think I will be disadvantaged as a result of breaking my leg and I can tell you now that I will not be using it as an excuse in Melbourne. I will be there ready to go."
Webber's return to action coincides with the launch of Red Bull's new car - with the team being one of the last to unveil their 2009 machine.
Although Webber concedes that launching so late is not ideal, because of the limited time it gives the team to iron out reliability problems, he thinks there is still enough time for them to get on top of any issues.
"We are the last of the major teams to launch our car - on 9 February," he said. "That probably helps me in the sense that I will be in better shape by the time we run it for the first time but it might not be the best solution overall.
"Come the third or fourth race would we have preferred to have that extra 600-800km on the car? Some would argue yes.
"But there is a lot of stuff you can do now to make sure the cars are reliable - and we had very good mechanical reliability last year. We only had one failure - on my car in Singapore. The other one, in Germany, was a holed radiator from a stone.
"If we can keep that sort of reliability up with this car, then our chief technical officer Adrian Newey's decision to delay the launch to give him more development time to get a bit more performance out of the car could be a good one."
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72758
__________________________________________________________________________
Vettel: No problem adapting to Red Bull
By Edd Straw Tuesday, January 13th 2009, 13:56 GMT
Sebastian Vettel says he is not worried about having to adapt to working with a new team in 2009 after moving to Red Bull Racing from Scuderia Toro Rosso.
The 21-year-old German enjoyed a strong relationship with STR team principal Franz Tost, technical director Giorgio Ascanelli and then-team co-owner Gerhard Berger at the Faenza-based outfit, but is enjoying the challenge of getting used to working with the staff at Red Bull Racing.
"I have to build new relationships with different people, but I'm not worried," Vettel told autosport.com. "There are many more people working here at Red Bull, and there a lot of people with great potential.
"It's still a young team and it will take time to meld together but I'm extremely confident.
"I felt very comfortable at Toro Rosso. We created something that was very unique and very special with Gerhard, Franz and Giorgio and we did the best we could.
"Red Bull is a new team for me. We may have the same parent company, but it's a completely different environment, atmosphere and philosophy. These things you need to get used to. Red Bull Racing has a lot of potential and it is up to us, as team and driver, to produce it."
The 2008 Italian Grand Prix winner is also confident that the upgrades Red Bull Racing engine suppliers Renault have been allowed to make to their V8 engine will help the team.
"The fact that Renault is allowed to do something to its engine will certainly be no disadvantage and will only help us.
"But to be honest the differences between the engines last year were quite limited. I don't think that just one thing will make a difference. F1 is all about details - it's about the whole car."
Vettel is due to return to testing action at Jerez next month after the new Red Bull RB5 is unveiled on February 9.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72757
Forumula One: The World's Greatest Sport
- By darwin dali