Two-stop strategies yield no points for Toro Rosso

2011 Malaysian GP team review

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While most drivers made at least three pt stops the Toro Rosso pair made two.

But it didn’t pay off as neither finished in the points, and Sebastien Buemi received a stop-go penalty.

Sebastien BuemiJaime Alguersuari
Qualifying position1213
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)1’37.160 (-0.187)1’37.347
Race position1314
Laps55/5655/56
Pit stops22

Toro Rosso drivers’ lap times throughout the race:

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556
Sebastien Buemi117.754107.232106.614106.41106.15106.18106.927106.583106.136106.008106.198106.695107.761110.257112.749126.057104.473104.256104.001107.502129.619103.831104.091104.53104.78104.428105.038105.167106.448106.084107.411112.502127.209102.667102.774102.659102.818102.983103.269102.922103.026102.951103.261103.703103.386103.753104.544104.665105.098108.275107.654106.958108.013109.03112.231
Jaime Alguersuari117.325107.095106.764106.094106.284106.472106.515108.608106.73106.849107.341107.754109.606110.285111.221116.329125.113103.997104.428104.053104.195104.014104.439104.26104.972105.194105.677105.812106.544107.925107.936111.898123.134105.324104.285104.063103.744105.841104.398106.036104.55103.904104.046104.311104.495104.608107.475105.917107.132106.11106.281106.74109.076108.234111.675
Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, Sepang, 2011

Sebastien Buemi

Sebastien Buemi had a bizarre incident in qualifying when the left-hand sidepod came off his car. The part was replaced and he qualified 12th, unable to repeat his Melbourne feat of reaching Q3.

His race was spoiled by a penalty after his first pit stop where he broke the pit lane speed limit by 20kph. He said:

“At my first pit stop, I had the impression that the pit lane speed limiter had not been engaged. I immediately pressed it again, which deactivated it, so I speeded in the pit lane and picked up a ten second stop-go penalty, which I felt was a bit severe, as usually you get a drive-through penalty which loses you less time.”

Despite the added delay Buemi finished in front of his team mate. He felt that without the penalty he could have beaten the Force Indias and scored points.

Sebastien Buemi 2011 form guide

Jaime Alguersuari

Alguersuari was at a loss to explain his quiet run to 14th. Not unlike Lewis Hamilton, he lacked pace compared to his team mate later on in the race.

He said: “I need to analyse this race with the engineers, because to be honest, I don’t really understand what happened: we were slow and the tyre degradation was very high, higher than on Friday.

“I struggled to clean the graining off the front tyres and was losing performance with every passing lap. On the positive side, I made a good start, gaining a few places. But soon I found I could not keep up with the guys in front.

“Given the difficulties I had, I feel that finishing the race was in itself an achievement and the best I could do today.”

Jaime Alguersuari 2011 form guide

Daniel Ricciardo

Drove for the team in first practice.

2011 Malaysian Grand Prix


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    Keith Collantine
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    33 comments on “Two-stop strategies yield no points for Toro Rosso”

    1. I don’t think Jaime was once on the TV feed through the race. He must’ve done nothing at all in that race. Unlike Buemi who found himself double teaming Schumacher with Hamilton, that was brilliant.

      1. That was brilliant, really nice done and well read by the pair of them.

        1. That certainly was a highlight of the race. Wonderfull move by both.

      2. Yeah.. the double team move on Schumacher was definitely the most exciting overtaking move of the entire race. Luckily for Schumacher, he ducked into the pits, as it would be pretty embarrassing for him to come out of that corner behind the both of them.

      3. Jaime was all over the team feed during the race, usually being passed by Sutil, or being passed by Kobayashi, or being passed by Schumacher, or being passed…poor guy did not look comfortable in that car during the race. Unable to race, he looked as though he was just enduring it, and the time demonstrates that.

    2. I can’t help but feel that their package is actually quite good, and it is the drivers slowing the team down. They really need to buckle up an drive a bit more consistently otherwise they will finish last of the midfield teams this season(william will sort it out sooner or later by the way)

      1. I’m inclined to agree with you. I think Buemi needs to up his game more given he has (marginally) more experience.

        They never strike me as a team with any guts about them, like they know their place beneath RBR and are happy with it. Surely Mateschitz expects more of them?

        1. I doubt Mateschitz cares provided his main investment is constantly at the front. He’s happy with them being in the mid-field.

          1. That had crossed my mind. Effectively one less competitor for RBR.

            1. Although if they did better they could occasionally be taking points off RBR’s competitors, so the idea that he’s happy having them at the back of the midfield is probably not reality.

        2. I think Alguersuari needs to up his game. Other than being a marketable chap, Jaime doesn’t have a lot going for him.

      2. Agreed. Someone needs to buy out Toro Rosso and give them some decent drivers, not Red Bull nobodies.

        1. Dont forget where Vettel came from. He was a noobie until he got his chance.

          1. …With BMW Sauber.

            1. … to replace Kubica for a few races. Which was an odd situation. They bprrowed him for that time.

      3. Pre season testing indicated they had good pace. But pre seasoning testing told us that Mercedes and Ferrari would be quicker than they are too.

        As for the drivers, they cant be all that bad given that they are part of the Red Bull development program, and have been for some time. If the team can sort out their car, perhaps they’ll feature for up the grid sometime in Europe.

        When watching I thought that Buemi’s penalty was a little harsh. Was he given a 10second stop/go because of how much he broke the pit-lane speed limit by, or is this the FIA cracking down on this behaviour.

    3. I can sympathise with Buemie regarding his penalty, i’m always catching myself out on F1 2010 with that ;)

      The penalty does strike me as a bit on the extreme side, a drive-through would have been sufficient.

      1. It’s all to do with speed. 20kph is quite a large amount over the speed limit, hence the stop/go.

        1. And the pitlane time loss is said to be pretty small in Malaysia.

        2. Oh yea it is. 33% over. I don’t agree with speeding in the pit lane but it sounds to me like he made a concious effort to stick to the rules.

    4. Their tyres were good for about 14 laps then fell away badly in the final stint, the additional 9 laps were very costly. I think they should have made an extra tyre stop.

    5. I’m actually quite impressed with Buemi after this race. Excluding the rather rookieish error he made, the fact that he finished ahead of his teammate after that says quite a bit. I’m sure points were on the cards if he hadn’t messed up.

    6. Surely the stop-go penalty was decided because the race stewards are manly, hairy-chested chaps who listen to BBC coverage and always want to beat Brundle’s penalty predictions.

      Think about it – when the Pundits wonder if something will be penalised, it always does. Now they announced a imminent drive-through, and stewards decided “no no, we will give the man a stop-go penalty, that’s what we will give”. When Brundle spots a stop-go worthy mistake next time, they’ll exclude the driver from the race, and then the championship.

      1. So each week the stewards are dueling with Brundle…There’s a conspiracy for you.

    7. Ridiculous to give Buemi a stop-go rather than a drive-through. 3 absurd decisions by the stewards, they’re already spoiling the season

      1. Well, not necessarily. It’s not hard to see why they might want a degree of freedom here.

        I expect in most instances where drivers have broken the pit lane speed limit they’ve not broken by very much or not broken it for very long.

        Breaking the limit by 20kph – 20% – is quite substantial. If he gained more of an advantage than drivers usually do in these circumstances then it would make sense to give him a more severe penalty.

        Having said all that, it wouldn’t hurt them to give more detailed explanation for these penalties to clear up things like this. A few years ago they promised they would but we’ve seen precious little of it.

        1. Is it 20kph on average trough the whole pit lane or just over the line coming in or out? If its on average then, yeah that would be a big gain and deserved penalty. If its just coming in or out, then the gain would have been very tiny, and the penalty should have been just a formality. Its hard to imagine he would gone down the whole way 20kph faster?

          1. The FIA note just says he did 120.6kph.

        2. good thing you reminded us of how the stewards were going to put more of an explanation up.

          In Australia it had us all guessing, hunting down Sauber to hear what had been wrong exaclty. Now we debate, if it wasn’t a bit overdone and how fast he was for how long with Buemi. And most of us are rather puzzled by the reasons for actually giving penalties to both Alonso and Hamilton.
          Definetly an urgent need for the FIA to publicise penaties with a thorough explanation of just why this penalty was chosen.

        3. Fair point Keith

          1. I hope I’m right otherwise it’s completely arbitrary!

    8. Orishas77 (@)
      11th April 2011, 21:56

      I think he said he realised his mistake and put the limiter on again. Anyway, I think a penalty is supposed to a) Punish the driver for breaking the rule b) Make up for the time illegally won over other drivers (IMO this is the most important).
      20kph over the limit for a few seconds can’t give him more than, let’s say, a 1 second advantage.
      So I think a drive-through was more than enough to punish him…
      What do you guys think from that point of view?…

    9. Why did he get a 10 second Stop & Go Penalty as far I know it should have been a driver through penalty?

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