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Former Bahrain speedster, Sebastian Buemi had proven his mettle in New York City when he sped into victory with a “lights-to-flag” win for Nissan e.dams in the Formula E electric street racing championship.
And although he did not win the final round of season five, which was raced on the Brooklyn Street Circuit, he is still thrilled with his success. He dedicated it to team principal Jean-Paul Driot and earned Nissan its first Formula E triumph.
“I’m quite emotional because it has been more than two years between victories,” said Buemi. “I really wanted to win for Nissan e.dams team principal Jean-Paul Driot who hasn’t been doing well lately with health issues and this win was for him.”
The 30-year-old had also marked a milestone for Nissan e.dams by breaking the record for having the most pole positions by a single team in a Formula E season (six) and extending their record for the number of Super Pole appearances by a single team in a season to 15.
Buemi was the fastest in his qualifying group for the first race in New York and earned the top spot by 0.412 of a second. He then led every lap of the race to take the win in the penultimate round of the ABB FIA Formula E championship.
“The safety car actually helped me in the end. Early in the race, my crew told me we were doing well on energy management compared to the guys behind me. In the end, it was similar to Rome – I had to slow down a little to cross the line after the 45-minute mark, so we didn’t have to do an extra lap.
“We were actually in contention for the championship, but qualifying was difficult because we were in group one. That wasn’t easy but the track was the same, the conditions were the same – we gave it our best shot.”
The father-of-two has 13 Formula E victories and 15 pole positions – both records for the championship.
Buemi came in second in the overall driver standings with a total of 119 points after losing the final race of the season to Dutchman Robin Frijns driving for Envision Virgin Racing.
First-place in the driver standings is Jean-Eric Vergne of team DS Techeetah Formula E. The Frenchman had won with a total of 136 points.
The ABB FIA Formula E Championship team is also DS Techeetah Formula E.
Nonetheless, Buemi is looking forward to next season which will kick off in November and thanks his team for all their effort.
He said: “A big thank you must go to my guys on the Nissan e.dams team – we’ve been so close, so often earlier this year and I’m really pleased for them.”
Nissan is using Formula E to demonstrate the power and performance of its electric vehicle technology – a key part of the company’s Nissan Intelligent Mobility vision.
Fact file about Buemi:
He was the 2014 WEC Champion, a Formula E racer and is a reserve driver for Scuderia Toro Rosso’s sister team, Red Bull Racing. He spent a spell living and racing in Bahrain from 2009 to 2011 in Formula BMW, GP2 and Formula 1. During his stay on the island, he lived with his uncle Humbert, 58, a businessman and Swiss Honourary Consul to the Kingdom of Bahrain, his aunt Silvia and cousins Frederic, 22, Steve, 20, and the late Laura, in Saar.
He dedicated his 2013 World Endurance Championship - Six Hours of Bahrain victory to his much-loved cousin, Laura, who lost her battle against leukaemia in July 2012 at the age of 11. He won both the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans and, subsequently, the 2018-19 WEC Championship. He won the Formula E Championship in 2015-16.
Buemi is married to Jennifer. In 2017, he had a son named Jules and settled to family life back in his home country, Switzerland. He then welcomed the birth of his second son Theo in January 2018.
