The Swiss driver’s continued dominance of winter testing may be slightly superficial due to Toro Ross’s decision to run their 2008-specification car, but the manner in which he has seen off his vastly more experienced rivals for the lead seat – Takuma Sato and Sebastien Bourdais – has made him one to watch as he takes over the the reigns of Italian GP winner Sebastian Vettel.
In Vettel, Buemi admits he has a tough act to follow, but the 20-year-old is confident that by the end of the season he will be delivering similar results.
“For sure coming just after Vettel is a bit more pressure, but he has improved the team, so my first feeling is that I am grateful to him for this,” he tells Formula One’s official website. “And of course I will try to do my best to live up to the standards that he has set. The rules have changed a lot so it will be very different anyway.”
“We have to wait for the season start to see where we are and I will do my job in the best way I can. I don t think too much about what he did or what I should do. For sure, there will be comparisons all year long, but I can live with that.”
Buemi has also hinted that he has his eyes on a Red Bull seat should he impress in his debut year.
“For sure I would like to,” he said when asked if he wanted to be a similar position to Vettel at the end of the 2009 season, “but to achieve that you have to work very hard – and I am prepared for it. For the moment I have a lot to learn and only after the first couple of races will it become clear where we are performance wise, and if we can repeat last year s success story.”