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THE BUEMI family were celebrating this week after confirmation that their 'big cousin' who shares their home in Budaiya was officially a Formula One driver.
Sebastien Buemi is expected to be the youngest driver on the F1 grid after dominating the karting world and impressing in GP2 before securing a seat with the Toro Rosso team.
The 20-year-old Swiss driver, who moved to Bahrain last year to be based with his uncle Humbert, auntie Sylvia and their young family, said: "I'm really excited and determined to make my family proud!
"Being a Formula One driver has always been my target, since I first started racing. This year, I will do all I can to bring home the best possible results and to show Red Bull that the confidence it has shown in me is justified."
Buemi's first official track outing will be at the test session at the Portimao Circuit in Portugal later this month.
Humbert Buemi, 48, an executive director and senior representative of UBS bank, is thrilled for his nephew and always believed he had the talent to make it to the top of motor sport.
He said: "We are all very happy for him and can't believe that this is real. It's such an amazing achievement and we thank Red Bull for their support. Sebastien deserves this seat and he is ready!
"My brother Antoine and Sebastien's mother Veronique have sacrificed so much for their son's sporting career and they are beyond overwhelmed at the moment.
"Antoine was shopping when he got the call from Sebastien. He was so struck emotionally that he had to sit in his car and compose himself and only then he called his wife and told her the good news.
"I was the same. When he called me and told me he had signed the contract, even though I knew it was coming, it felt unbelievable! Even now I get emotional."
The family have had a roller-coaster on emotions in recent months. Their seven-year-old daughter, Laura, has been undergoing treatment for leukaemia in Switzerland.
Mr Buemi, who also has two sons, Frederic, 13, and Steve, 10, said: "Sebastien and Laura are very close and he was there for us even with everything he was going through. Sebastien is a very grounded individual. We are a very close family.
"Now my daughter is doing a lot better and she is continuing her treatment in Bahrain. We have such a strong link to the kingdom and so does Sebastien.
"He loves it here, perhaps because it's a little bit like Switzerland. The people here are not nosey and they give you your space.
"He has his privacy, family life which is extremely important to him and all the facilities he needs. He plays tennis with us in the compound and trains in the gym with us, plus he loves the geographic location of Bahrain since it is between Europe and the Far East. In between races he returns to Bahrain to relax. In fact, he should be coming back to Bahrain at the end of this month.
"Once again, Sebastien was made for this and this just goes to show that perseverance and hard work pays off - especially with support. I believe anything is possible as long as you have the will and the talent."
Sebastien's racing story started in 1993 in Aigle, Switzerland, on Christmas morning when he found a go-kart under the family Christmas tree. He is pictured above aged five when he first started whizzing around his father's garage. His parents saw the gleam in his eyes and set off on making his dream of becoming a F1 driver a reality.
At eight he qualified to race in the Swiss Go-Karting championship, winning the title four years in a row and started climbing the racing ladder. He also became the European and Italian junior karting champion before graduating up the racing ranks to find success in Formula Three and GP 2. Buemi was also a reserve driver last year for Toro Rosso's sister team, Red Bull Racing. He came up through Red Bull's junior driver programme.
Cousin Steve, a student at the French School of Bahrain, said: "I am very proud of Seb and try to watch as many of his races as I can. My favourite F1 driver is Sebastien first and Lewis Hamilton second!"
"Our engineers have been impressed with his speed in the car and his ability to learn and progress during the testing he carried out for us last year," team chief Franz Tost said. "That, along with some impressive performances in GP2 was enough to convince us to give him the drive."
Toro Rosso must still decide on its other driver for 2009, including whether to retain Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais.
