Assessment: Toro Rosso is now the 10th team

The end of the 2009 season is difficult for Scuderia Toro Rosso, which struggles to make the most of the chassis provided by Red Bull. Starting from the 16th and 17th positions, the drivers primarily hoped to reach the end of the race… this would only be the case for one car.

Jaime Alguersuari was involved in the first-lap crash by colliding with Hamilton in front of him. Sébastien Buemi, on the other hand, had a solid race, finishing in 12th position, 10 seconds away from the point-scoring 8th place.

With today’s performance by Force India, Toro Rosso is now the last team in the standings, but that is not enough to affect their morale. The entire team is now hopefully turning towards Monza, the site of their past success with Vettel in 2008, a feat that will nonetheless be difficult to repeat.

Sébastien Buemi – 12th:

I had a steady race, without errors and everything on the car worked well. It’s a shame I couldn’t pass Kovalainen, even though I was faster than him, but at least I tried. Maybe a one-stop strategy would have worked better for me. I wasn’t involved in the first lap accident, but I might have driven over debris because for a few laps my front wing didn’t seem to work, and I tried to drive over the curbs to shake it, and eventually, it was better. In the end, I think I had a good race, and I hope we do the same in Monza, with low downforce.

Jaime Alguersuari – retirement

My race wasn’t long. These things happen in competition and you must accept it. My start wasn’t too bad and the car seemed to be working well. At turn 2, Jenson spun out and Hamilton went left to avoid him, going onto the part of the track where I was. We collided and my car was too damaged to continue. I hope we do better in the upcoming races.

Franz Tost – Director:

Jaime’s race was over at the second corner following a collision with Hamilton. Sébastien had a good start, he was 11th on the second lap and had a good first stint. In the second part of the race, he got stuck behind Kovalainen and we decided to call him in earlier for the second stop, and from there, the race became complicated for us. This proves once again that it’s important to qualify well to have a good result in the race.