Sebastian Buemi says his team must concentrate on improving their qualifying pace after proving in the Canadian GP that the STR5 has the race pace to challenge the mid-field.
An impressive performance in Montreal saw Buemi come through the field from 15th to eighth as well as leading the race for a single lap before pitting.
The sister team to Red Bull is however having difficulties getting the most out of its car in qualifying, an area which Buemi believes is holding the team back.
“Our race pace was good, but where we suffered was in qualifying, because ending up fifteenth and sixteenth on the grid, behind the Williams was just not good enough,” he said in his STR blog.
“It’s clear that we are much more competitive in the race than in qualifying, where we are not producing the results we want. We need to be starting the races from the top ten or at a maximum in the top twelve.
“I believe we and by that I mean, the drivers and the team, are not getting the most out of the new tyre on the first flying lap. This means our lap times are not good enough, whereas in the race, with a full fuel load, we are much better at getting the tyres to work properly.”
The Swiss driver is hoping for immediate improvements in the next race which takes place in Valencia, where the team will push to make Q3.
“In Valencia, as I have already said, the main aim will be to qualify better, trying to get as close as possible to the top ten and then let’s see what happens, because it’s hard to make predictions until Friday practice. Valencia has not yet delivered a very exciting race, but maybe this year it will be different.”
