Buemi confident, but stays realistic

The Swiss driver will be replacing Sebastian Vettel at the team, the young German having scored a shock victory from pole position at last year's Italian Grand Prix.

Aware that it will be hard to fill Vettel's shoes, rookie Buemi believes the team have to stay realistic, but he does admit he feels he is ready to do a good job in Formula One.

"In Formula One everything changes so fast, and I would say Vettel did a fantastic job," Buemi told reporters in Barcelona during the launch of the new STR4. "We need to wait and see what will be our possibilities.

"For sure we always want to improve. We don't want to do a step back. We need to keep in mind what we achieved last year, and now, with the new rules we need to wait and be realistic but at the minute I think we can do a good job."

Speaking about his goals for the season, he said: "It's a bit too early to say. If the car is fast we want to achieve something good, if not, then we will try to do our best.

"But the objective is to fight against my teammate, to prove myself during the whole season, so I arrive at the end and be happy with what I did."

He added: "I'm very excited at the moment. I would say that I am really excited to drive the new car. Melbourne will come fast - we have the end of this week, and then another week, and that's it. So I am really looking forward to being in the car."

Buemi will be making his grand prix debut after finishing in sixth position in last year's GP2 Series, and he will be the only rookie on the grid this year.

But the Swiss driver says his status is not important.

"In the end, when you sit in the car it doesn't really matter if you're the only rookie or not," he said. "I just try to concentrate as best as possible on my job, and that's it.

"You just need to relax and think about what you need to do, rather than the pressure of being the only rookie."