Red Bull driver Sebastien Buemi aspires to replace Mark Webber in 2013 – Formula 1 news
Sebastien Buemi hopes that the Red Bull reserve driver role will transcend towards a race seat for the 2013 season replacing Mark Webber.
Buemi drove for Toro Rosso for the 2011 season with a fair showing. He scored 15 points for his team with a best finish of 8th in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
At the end of the season, Toro Rosso announced that they will be replacing both their drivers, Jaime Alguersuari being the other with Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo. Buemi expressed his shock at the announcement and said that he did not at any point
think that he would be left out for the 2012 season.
Respite came for Buemi as Red Bull chose to hire him as their reserve and test driver for the 2012 season.
Now Buemi has shown enough promise during the practice sessions of the season to be in serious contention for Webber’s race seat as the Aussie’s contract end at the end of 2012.
“The contract I've signed covers just one year,” Buemi said. “After that I have not been promised anything so we'll see. Actually I think it's better to be the third driver in the best team than to race at the bottom of the grid. Since December I was in
contact with other teams as I had opportunities elsewhere. But ultimately the best solution was to stay with Red Bull.”
“Now it's up to me to do my best in the simulator to prove to them that I am qualified in case Mark Webber's contract is not renewed for 2013,” he said.
Webber made it clear that he hopes to extend his contract beyond 2012 with Red Bull although the team has given mixed signals toward Webber’s position as they have mentioned names to replace the Aussie while also praising him.
Recently, Dr. Helmut Marko suggested that the reason behind replacing Buemi and Alguersuari was that the team did not consider them winners. The statement creates more ambiguity towards the decision to hire Buemi as their reserve and test driver.
It will be interesting to see how the wheels turn and who gets the shot at the much coveted Red Bull race seat in 2013.
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