No points again (STR race review)

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Toro Rosso were out of the points for the fourth race in a row after Alguersuari’s post-race penalty.

Sebastien BuemiJaime Alguersuari
Qualifying position1611
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)1’49.209 (+0.942)1’48.267
Race position1213
Average race lap2’02.367 (-0.217)2’02.585
Laps44/4444/44
Pit stops43

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Sebastien Buemi

Buemi blamed first-lap contact for making his car “undriveable”:

I managed to get a very good start, but then at the first corner, someone ran into me, which cut my left rear tyre and damaged the diffuser, so I tried all sorts of things like locking the differential and changing the front wing settings to compensate, as I was oversteering a huge amount. It cost me a lot in terms of pace, because at times the car was undriveable. So unfortunately, I could not do better than this, which is a shame, as this was a race where I could have been in the hunt for points. That’s racing.
Sebastien Buemi

Compare Sebastien Buemi’s form against his team mate in 2010

Jaime Alguersuari

Started a career-best 11th, moved up to tenth but threw it away by pitting for intermediates on lap two. He was back in two laps later for dry weather tyres.

He made his way past the new teams, then capitalised on the Vettel/Liuzzi collision and a mistake by Kamui Kobayashi to move up further.

He passed the other Sauber of Pedro de la Rosa for tenth when the Spanish driver went off at Curve Paul Frere shortly after the restart.

But he lost the place after the stewards decided he had gained an advantage by going off at the chicane on lap 42, keeping Liuzzi behind while doing so. Alguersuari was penalised 20 seconds which dropped him from tenth to 13th.

Compare Jaime Alguersuari’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 Belgian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    16 comments on “No points again (STR race review)”

    1. STR went for the all or nothing approach. If they’d have not gambled on a wet set up they probably wouldn’t have been any where anyway. So even if it didn’t pay off this time it’s worth the risk.

      A team like that have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Monza 2008 anyone?

      I hope they take a risk like this again and it pays off.

      Jaime was unlucky with his penalty as it sounds like he cut whilst defending his position, something Schumacher didn’t get penalised for in Montreal.

      1. Yeah it’s a bit hard to say as it seemed to be missed by the cameras.

      2. I thought the exact same thing, though the articles I’ve read so far indicate that he overtook as opposed to defended. If indeed he was defending,

        1. Liuzzi would have to have passed him earlier on the same lap for that to be the case, as Alguersuari was already ahead of him.

      3. Don t think they wouldn t be anywhere… Maybe Buemi, who was deadly slow all the weekend… Alguersuari was very fast on dry, he was already in the top 10 at the beginning of the race, so he had a chance to finish even higher…(as it was also confirmed by Tost) The first stop was unfortunately unnecessary and threw him even out of top 20… Ironically the rain, which he wished was the main problem, because of the tyre gamble… He had to defend against Liuzzi, who was on wet tyres, not on intermediates like Alguersuari…

    2. Charles Carroll
      30th August 2010, 13:06

      *Yawn* So Red Bull’s developmental “B” squad failed to score.

      Did we really expect more of Team Rouge Bovine?

    3. It sounds like Jaime had quite a actyion packed race. Shame we barely saw any of it.

      1. Earlier in the year we had heaps of footage from further back, both mid fielders and tail enders, but now it’s reverted back a bit…

        I like seeing the slower cars as well sometimes…

    4. That was (I think) 6th time this year Buemi was hit on lap 1. And it was never his fault. Melbourne, Sepang, Shanghai, Istanbul, Hockenheim, Spa. 6/13 races.

      1. But why is it happening only to him? True is that he had some bad starts this season even without colliding with someone… In Hungary he dropped from 15th to 19th, in Bahrain he dropped from 15th to 17th… Off course, when something happends in race, it is never his fault…

    5. Those average race lap comparisons are useless… Buemi two tenths faster? :o It must be counted with the penalty, because he was more then 1,2 second slower then Alguersuari in the race… Jaime had 10 laps better then Buemi s top lap!

      1. It would be quite difficult to separate each drivers race laps from pit laps or compromised laps… To try and do it fairly would be mine field…

        1. It is not that difficult… You can count “real” laps, not those spent behind the SC, or those in and out of the pits, or the first lap… I did exactly that…

          For example:

          Alguersuari – 1:55.887 -34 laps counted
          Buemi – 1:57.109 (+1,222) -34laps counted

          Sutil – 1:54,782 -34 laps counted
          Liuzzi – 1:56,435 (+1,653)-31 laps counte

          I think this is a better way how to compare the pace of drivers, then just adding all laps together even those spent behind the SC, or those in which driver stopped in pit and so on… It is misleading…

    6. A shame the camera’s missed a lot of Jamies race. These guys are doing a solid job with the equipment they have, but they must get frustrated a bit as there’s not really anywhere to go.

      Buemi might move up to RBR in 2012, thats another year to go. But where will Alguersuari go? STR will hardly have the opportunity to fight their way up the grid (investment, competition and will to push) and RBR are not going to take him on any time soon, so he will probably have to look somewhere else.

      1. Judging by current performances, I would be more inclined to say that Jaime deserves the promotion before Buemi at the moment. Algusuari has really come alive this season and I reckon the better drive of the two at Toro Rosso.

        1. And I bet this is not the end – Jaime will be even stronger, because he knows all the remaining tracks except Korea…

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