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BAHRAIN'S adopted Formula One son Sebastien Buemi says he hopes to use the experience of picking up his first championship points in his rookie season to compete with the big guns in 2010.
Last season he was 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.
He notched six race points and impressed more seasoned campaigners with his cool temperament and racing prowess.
Buemi passed on this heartfelt message to GulfWeekly readers: "Thank you so much for your support and I really look forward to coming again to Bahrain next month. See you there at the BIC."
The 21-year-old Swiss driver, had been living in Bahrain with his uncle Humbert, auntie Sylvia and their young family in Saar until recently setting up base in Monte-Carlo as this was more convenient for him, being closer to the Red Bull organisation (Austria and UK), to the Toro Rosso Team in Italy, to the European circuits and also to his parents in Switzerland.
But it will not be long before he's back in the arms of his Bahrain-based family and friends as the F1 season opens at the circuit in Sakhir shortly. Humbert, 49, an executive director and senior representative of UBS bank, believes his nephew has grown in confidence.
"As you know, once again there have been some major changes in the regulations - Toro Rosso has had to build its own car and will not be able to benefit from the Red Bull developments anymore.
"There will not be any refuelling this year, meaning that the overall car configuration has had to be changed. But after the first tests in Valencia last week, Sebastien feels confident that he could have a competitive car. Let's wait and see.
"Last season gave me confirmation that Sebastien is a very quick driver and a very quick learner. We could clearly see at the end of the season that when the car was competitive, he was progressing very well.
"He has now built up a pretty good experience of the tracks and of an F1 car. This year he will definitely get better. I simply hope that the new Toro Rosso STR5 will offer him the chance to compete for top spots and enable him to score the maximum points.
"I have always been very proud of him and about what he is doing. Being a F1 fan since I was a kid, I could have never expected that one day we would have a member of our family racing in F1. As you can imagine, it is an incredible feeling to watch him on TV and to be with him during some of the Grand Prix races. In terms of expectations, I have always believed that Sebastien has the potential to become one of the great drivers.
"He still has to build up some experience but he has already made a big step into that direction. Over the winter, he has trained like never before. He is now in perfect physical condition. We shall definitely see much more coming from him over the next couple of years."
Buemi and teammate Jaime Alguersuari unveiled Toro Rosso's STR5 car at Valencia's Cheste Circuit recently. Even though this is Buemi's second full season, technical director Giorgio Ascanelli said current testing rules were hampering the development of the new generation of drivers.
"The rules are not favouring their capacity to pick up experience," Ascanelli said. "It's a tremendous task they have as any newcomer."
Formula One bans in-season testing and off-season testing is limited to 15 days, which young drivers like Renault's Vitaly Petrov and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi will be counting on for experience. Bruno Senna of Campos Meta won't even get a chance to test because the team won't be on the track before the season-opening Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
After becoming the youngest driver to debut in Formula One, Alguersuari hopes to lose his tag as most dangerous driver on the grid. The 19-year-old Spaniard said he is better prepared mentally and physically for the strains of F1 after being put into the team's car for the final eight races of last season without any prior experience in motor racing's premier sport.
Several F1 drivers were critical of his arrival, saying it amounted to a security concern.
"I understand the comments from all the other Formula One drivers, but I don't believe them. I do believe things will go different (this year) and we will be ready for Formula One. Things last year were so fast," said Alguersuari.
