Buemi, the ice king

Red Bull did not want to leave Canada without having celebrated, in its own way, the return of the Montreal Grand Prix to the 2010 world championship calendar. Even if the initial show, scheduled for last Saturday in Montreal, was canceled, the energy drink brand opted for a plan B and filmed the whole thing to offer his fans images of the car Red Bull on ice. It was therefore not the frozen Olympic basin of Montreal which welcomed Sébastien Buemi but the Eau Claire lake, in Saint-Alexis-des-Monts, a town located further north and where the lake had a more solid layer of ice.

A replica of the Gilles-Villneuve circuit was therefore traced there and the Swiss driver was able to take to the track (watch in video). " It was fantastic to be able to drive the F1 on the lake, admitted Buemi to La Presse de Montréal. I didn't expect to have so much grip and to be able to ride so fast. Especially at the end, I was in the middle of nothing, I could attack and do what I wanted, there was room on all sides, it was great. »

For the occasion, his Red Bull single-seater was fitted with special tires. Bridgestone's Potenza tires thus offered adequate grip thanks to 420 studs on the front rubbers and 588 on the rear rubbers, fixed on the drive wheels. “ There is only one pair in the world, so we had to be very careful since these were the only tires we had », Tony Burrows, head of the Red Bull Racing test team, explained to La Presse.

But before the reply, Sébastien Buemi was able to ride on the real Gilles-Villeneuve circuit, in Montreal. In very particular grip conditions and in the middle of walls of snow, the Swiss had a great time. “ It was quite impressive because I didn't expect to ride with a meter of snow on each side of the track, confesses Buemi. It was cool to see the city all white and to be able to drive on the circuit. »