Toro Rosso’s newest driver signing, Sebastian Buemi, recently faced his first question time with the team where he spoke to their official website about his hopes for 2009, moving up into the world of Formula One and the signing of the contract.

Scuderia Toro Rosso has just announced your contract for the 2009 season. When did you sign it?

It was on 22nd December ’08, at Fuschl am See, in Austria (Red Bull head office.) I was there for some physical condition testing and I hoped “something” might happen during my three day stay there. On the Monday, Mr. Mateschitz asked me to come and see him in his office. He then presented me with a contract and asked me to sign it. It was a fantastic moment.

What did you feel at the time?

I thought life was about to get serious. That doesn’t mean I haven’t taken my work seriously up until now, but let’s say that Formula 1 is a whole new level. It’s something I’ve been preparing for all my life and suddenly, at the moment one becomes a Formula 1 driver, everything one has done up until that point seems insignificant. It meant I had successfully completed all the previous stages and from now on, it was up to me to show Red Bull that they had made the right decision in showing this confidence in me.

Are you worried about tackling F1? There’s a lot more pressure than you have had to deal with up until now.

There’s always a slight feeling of apprehension going into a new season of motor racing. I always feel I want to do a good job. I know there will be pressure in F1, more than in the past, but that’s part of the game. There’s always been pressure, from karting through to GP2, via Formula BMW and F3. Each step of the way, you need to be perfectly prepared, so now it’s up to me to make sure I’m perfectly prepared before the first Grand Prix in Melbourne and to show what I can do. But you also need to find the right rhythm and that won’t happen in the space of a couple of race weekends, although Toro Rosso will be doing everything so that things go as well as possible.

In your career so far, you have always been in a position where you were capable of winning. In F1, that is certainly going to be more difficult. Do you think you might feel discouraged?

You have to be realistic. You have to have self-confidence and put yourself in the best possible situation. But you have to keep your feet on the ground and not get depressed if the results don’t come immediately. It will be a tough season and everyone in the team will be working hard to make progress with the car in a discipline that represents the highest form of motor sport. In the lower formulae, if you did a good job, then the results would follow, but in F1, that is not automatically the case. Winning in F1 is very difficult and that is part of the game. But you cannot just settle for aiming for a twelfth place; that would be absurd. You have to set yourself a very high standard, but without exaggerating. I won’t be world champion in my first year!

You will probably be the youngest driver on the grid this year. Does that mean anything to you?

I’ve already been the youngest winner in GP2, in Formula 3 and in Formula BMW. That was nice, but in F1, it counts for nothing, age does not matter. It’s not the case that at 20 you don’t have enough experience and that at 28 you are too old. I can compete against 25 or 40 year olds and that makes no difference to me. I would like to be the fastest, whatever my age.

You will now be racing against the likes of Hamilton, Raikkonen and Alonso. Does that scare you?

When you watch the Grands Prix on TV, you tell yourself you would like to be part of it. You admire some drivers, but now that I will be part of it, I will regard all my competitors in the same way. Fighting against the top guys will be very difficult, but I will act the same towards all of the drivers.

You have already driven an F1 car a few times. Is it really so different to other types of racing car?

A Formula 1 car is faster, its overall performance is better and it is harder for a driver to take it to its limit. The hardest thing about it is that, in F1, you have to do several things at the same time: communicate with the team by radio, constantly change settings on the steering wheel, follow instructions from the team and all of this while going considerably quicker than in the other formulas. F1 is more physically demanding, but you gradually get used to all of this and everything must eventually become instinctive.

You are the first Swiss driver to compete in F1 for 14 years and no Swiss driver has scored points in the last 25 years. Why has it been such a barren time for Swiss drivers?

Switzerland is not a good place from which to embark on a racing career. There is no help for the drivers, no infrastructure, no circuits, no support programme. In France for example, there are several well established schools and even so, it’s clear they struggle to get drivers into F1, so imagine what it’s like in a country that has nothing. It’s entirely down to the individual, but maybe my arrival in F1 will change that.

Your career has moved forward very quickly. What have been the key moments?

The first big step was winning the Swiss karting championship, then the 2002 European karting championship, beating the best drivers in this discipline. That was really super. My first race in Formula BMW was also very important: I finished second just behind Sebastian Vettel and that’s where I was spotted by Red Bull’s Dr. Marko. Thanks to that race I signed a long term contract with Red Bull. I loved my first win in F3, where I led the whole race in front of Vettel. I also have good memories of my first GP2 race in Monaco, where I qualified on the second row, never having seen the circuit before. Then there was my GP win in Magny-Cours when I started from 21st on the grid. And of course, my first ever F1 test on 14th July 2007, which was really very special for me.

Toro Rosso is one of the smallest teams on the grid, in terms of its number of staff. Is that a positive or a negative for a young driver?

Toro Rosso is the ideal team with which to start a career and it was set up specifically to help young drivers get into F1. Sebastian Vettel proved that last year. The team has a lot of potential.

The rules change significantly this year. Could that be a good thing for Toro Rosso?

Maybe the lack of in-season testing could be a good thing. There will be less development during the season, which means that if the car is good from the start, it should be good throughout the year. But, as always, the best teams will always be the best teams.

We do not yet know who will be your teammate. Do you have any preference?

Absolutely not. For me, the important thing is to be in F1 and I don’t mind who will be my team-mate. Of course, I will want to beat him and to be as competitive as possible. Maybe if he has a lot of experience, I will be able to learn and progress more quickly from watching him.

What is the length of your contract?

These matters are confidential, so let’s say I’m driving for the 2009 season.

What are your objectives for this season?

Before we see where everyone is in the Australian Grand Prix, it is hard to set targets, as there might be some early season surprises. The team will be aiming to do at least as well as in 2008, but that will be tough. For me personally, I would at least want to be quicker than my team-mate.

How will your life change now that you are in F1?

I don’t know yet. Ask me again in a few months time! I intend not to change the way I am. There will certainly be more interviews, but as for the rest I would like to maintain a level of stability. My family has always supported me throughout my career and that is very important to me. I will probably spend a lot more time in Faenza to be near the team factory. But I will still keep my main home in Manama (Bahrain.)

How are you planning to celebrate having signed this contract?

I would like to celebrate it on track by getting the best possible results.

When are you due to get behind the wheel of the F1 car again?

At the test at the Portimao circuit in the Algarve (Portugal) starting on 19th January.