Formula One news

Buemi eager to drive new car

F1 newcomer Sebastien Buemi is desperate to get his hands on the new STR4, having missed private testing in Italy last week. The Swiss driver was unable to drive at Adria as he came down with flu, but will finally climb into the cockpit in Barcelona on Wednesday when he takes over from Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastien Bourdais.

"All I'm planning to do is relax into my job and not worry about being the only rookie on the grid," explained Buemi. "I've done quite a lot of laps over the winter, although you never feel it's enough. Now we have to wait and see what the new car can do, and I'm really looking forward to driving it on Wednesday and Thursday. It will be important to spend as much time as possible driving this new car before the season, but my time spent in the 2008 car was not wasted as I was able to learn about all of the systems and the procedures we will go through on a race weekend. Of course, I also tried the slicks and we tried to reproduce the 2009 levels of downforce, but that was quite difficult to do."

Having launched the new car at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya this morning (Monday), Buemi is even more keen to get his hands on the wheel: "I'm very excited about it all and Melbourne seems quite close now - I'm sure there might be a few nerves when I'm on the grid, but for now I'm focusing on the new car and what I have to learn. It's a long flight to Australia, so I'll have plenty of time to think about the first race. The fact that the rules are new means it's the same for everyone in terms of the drivers having to get used to them, so that might be good for me."

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