No points in six races (STR race review)

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Toro Rosso’s point-less streak stretched to six races in Singapore.

Sebastien BuemiJaime Alguersuari
Qualifying position1311
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)1’48.502 (+0.836)1’47.666
Race position1412
Average race lap1’58.184 (-0.329)1’58.513
Laps60/6160/61
Pit stops31

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Sebastien Buemi

As seems to happen so often with Buemi, he made contact with another car on the opening lap. Suspecting front wing damage, the team changed his wing when he pitted during the first safety car period.

Extra pit stops were needed to pressurise the car’s hydraulics and after hit third visit to the pits he made contact with Heikki Kovalainen while passing the Lotus:

I am disappointed because I think that, without the difficulties I had, tenth place should have been within my grasp. However, generally the car has improved which is encouraging for the next race.
Sebastien Buemi

Compare Sebastien Buemi’s form against his team mate in 2010

Jaime Alguersuari

Alguersuari matched his best ever qualifying position of 11th but a water leak meant he had to start from the pit lane.

He pitted during the first safety car period as well but, like his team mate, had to make two further visits to the pits which left him 12th.

Compare Jaime Alguersuari’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 Singapore Grand Prix

    Browse all 2010 Singapore Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    17 comments on “No points in six races (STR race review)”

    1. With results like this, you can understand why rumour has it that Dietrich Mateschitz is looking to offload the team.

    2. No offence to them, but if Villeneuve or Epsilon buy out Toro Rosso they need to get rid of Buemi and Alguesuari. STR were meant to be a stepping stone to Red Bull but apart from Vettel they’ve had little success, and how many Vettels come through into F1? The team needs at least one experienced hand especially as they’re new to developing their own car. Both current drivers have shown talent but to be honest neither look capable of moving to a top team and even being good #2s whilst they’re paired with each other; both need an experienced team-mate to help each other out.

      1. Well I’m guessing the whole RBR2 team has succeeded then, they only need to produce one driver of champ winning potential every 8 years so ;) they have done it. I want another manufacturer to fill the slot. But not BMW, Toyota or Honda, they know where to go…

    3. Mr. Collantine you have a mistake there – Alguersuari finished 12th and Buemi 14th…

      1. Wrong value in the table – fixed.

    4. The water leak was a bummer. I was looking forward to seeing Alguersuari have a pretty decent race, and with all the retirements that happened ahead of him, he could have finished somewhere around 7th or 8th.

      1. Yes, everytime he can do well in race, something happened… He could finish 8th in Spain, but his crew messed up his stop… He finished 10th in Spa, but was later penalised (much worser behaving Hulkenberg in Italy wasn t)… He was running almost 2 seconds behind 9th Schumacher and 10th Hulkenberg in Silverstone and was faster then both in that time and his brakes broke down… He had qualified 11th in Singapore and could finish 8th, but his team didn t prepare his car ready for the start of the race… It must be so much frustrating for him…

        1. Yeah. So far I’ve been much more impressed with him this year than Buemi.

          1. Buemi has led a race though and has been taken out quite a lot. For me Buemi’s still the better driver. I do like Alg and I think he has promise but it has surprised me it has taken longer for him to make an impression on his team mate than it has for the Hulk and maybe even Petrov on theirs.

            1. Only strength of Buemi is (or was) qualifying… He is strong on tracks, where just less or medium downforce is needed, like Montreal, Valencia or Monza… Alguersuari bettered his qualifying, but mainly his race pace compared to last year in all tracks, where he drove in 2009 (in Hungary could be compared only qualifying)… For example last years race in Singapore was a catastrophe, because his physical condition was poor… He was nowhere near times of Buemi… This year he was matching him and being all the time directly behind or ahead of him… It is a matter of taste, if Hulk impressed more… He is still no match to Barrichello in terms of overall race pace of the season… There where races, where he was so much off the pace (1 second) and this is not a case of Alguersuari against his teammate…

    5. They did well in Qualifying seems like the safety car didn’t play in their hand.

    6. Is it just me or is the lack of testing limiting the chances of younger drivers these days. All respect to Hamilton and Vettel, they are both top drivers, but they are (I think) the youngest drivers on the grid who had a chance to get some miles under their belts in an F1 car outside of a race. And it shows. Buemi, Sennna and Alguersuari, to name a few, have the almost impossible task of coming up to scratch instantly during race day or their race days are numbered. I’m not suggesting going back to the days of unlimited testing, just something to give the new boys a chance.

      1. You are a bit wrong… ONLY Alguersuari (and also fired Grosjean) didn t turn any test miles in a F1 car /without short straight line testing off course/… Buemi did about 10 000 km, which is a whole one season of running and Senna did also some tests with Honda… Jaime went to F1 absolutely unprepared from physical side and also from side of F1 car experience… He was struggling on tracks like Valencia or Singapore last year, because the weather was hot and also humid in Asia… His fitness wasn t at the level, on which is it now…

        1. I knew my facts weren’t quite right but (I hope) you see what I mean. The way its going it’l be harder and harder for the new boys to keep up with those more experienced, given that they may not get the time to do it.

        2. Also, Petrov had 0 testing mileage before March..

          1. I am not sure about this…

    7. Jaime pitted only once, Keith, in fact he only managed to finish 12th thanks to that and the ability to nurse his hard tyres for 50 laps.

      He was set to have a really strong weekend, shame on STR for not managing to fix his car in time. I read some bizarre story this morning in spanish press about an STR mechanic having found some water underneath his car before the race. He cleaned it and told no one, later realizing his mistake when the team found out about the water leak, and having got fired by the team. Do you know anything about this, Keith?

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