Biography

In his first season, he finished third overall, following this up by finishing runner-up the following year. It's worth noting that in 2004 he was beaten by a certain Sebastian Vettel, while in 2005 it was Nico Hulkenberg who did the business - both youngsters being tipped for great things in F1.

For 2006, Sebastien moved up to the Spanish F3 Championship but moved to the Formula 3 Euroseries after just one race.

With just one win, the Swiss driver could only manage equal-eleventh in the championship standings, though he impressed with a podium finish in the Ultimate Masters of Formula 3 and fourth in Macau.

He remained in the Formula 3 Euro Series for 2007, finishing the season runner up to Romain Grosjean. In addition to this he replaced Michael Ammermuller in eleven rounds of the GP2 Series, contested the Macau GP (he finished 11th) and even found time to represent his country in A1 GP. Then there were two tests for the Red Bull F1 team.

Sebastien got 2008 off to a great start, not only by being signed as official test and reserve driver for Red Bull, but by finishing runner-up in the inaugural GP2 Asia Series, albeit 24 points behind Romain Grosjean.

In the main GP2 Series, which again he contested with Arden, the Swiss driver finished sixth overall courtesy of Sprint Race wins in France and Hungary.

The new rules meant there was little F1 test action during the course of the season, however, once the World Championship was over, Sebastien was kept busy dividing his time between Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

He constantly topped the timesheets but in all honesty this was more about the fact that his rivals were running in 2009-spec, with less downforce, than anything else.

On January 9, just under two weeks before testing for the 2009 season was due to resume, Toro Rosso announced that Sebastien had been signed, leaving it almost a month before they confirmed Sebastien Bourdais as his teammate.

Little was known about the Swiss youngster, though he certainly appeared fast. Historically, the last Swiss F1 driver was Jean-Denis Délétraz who took part in three Grands Prix in 1994 and 1995 with Larrousse and Pacific. However, in the eyes of many it was how he shaped up to Swiss legends Jo Siffert and Clay Regazzoni that really mattered.

As it happens, despite the shortcomings of the STR4 - and there were many - Sebastien gave a good account of himself.

For the first four races the team used the aero package featured on the original Red Bull launch car and thereafter remained several steps behind its sister team. Furthermore, it was well into the season (Hungary) before the Faenza team got its hands on Red Bull's evolved double diffuser, the Italian team using a 'standard' diffuser for the first few races.

The Italian team was never really able to match the weight distribution of its Milton Keynes counterpart which was to have a direct impact on its aerodynamic performance the car suffering terribly from oversteer. However, to his credit, and unlike teammate Bourdais, Sebastien simply got on with the job doing the best he could under the circumstances.

On his F1 debut (Melbourne) he out-qualified his illustrious teammate and subsequently went on to out-pace him in the race also.

While Bourdais only made it into Q2 on two occasions, Sebastien made it to Q3 in China and in the final three races of the season, by which time the STR4 was finally looking good, he was a regular in the final qualifying shootout.

Finishing in the points on four occasions, Sebastien, though not setting the world alight Vettel-style, gave a good account of himself and it came as no surprise when the Faenza outfit retained him for 2010.

While we hope to see more of the Swiss in 2010 this looks unlikely since the rules no longer permit one team to share its design with another. Therefore, with this is mind, not to mention several new teams entering the sport, 2010 could be another very difficult year for the Faenza outfit.

Statistics - at the end of 2009 Season

Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 1
Grand Prix: 17
Wins: 0
Points: 6
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 0

Best result in 2009: 5th (2 times)
Best qualifying 2009: 6th (Brazil)
Worst qualifying 2009: 20th (2 times)
2009: Out-qualified Sebastien Bourdais 7 times
2009: Out-qualified Jaime Alguersuari 8 times
2009: Out-qualified by Sebastien Bourdais 2 times
2009: Out-qualified by Jaime Alguersuari 0 times

2009: Completed 776 out of 988 laps (78.5%)
2009: Finished 12 times from 17 starts (71%)