Sébastian Buemi: “I feel we are getting better and better”

Sébastian Buemi is seemingly a racing driver reborn with Envision Racing, with the Swiss driver having performed strongly at the Diriyah E-Prix double-header.

The second and third rounds of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will forever be memorable for the former Formula E Champion, with it having been his ninety-ninth and one-hundredth races in the all-electric series. Buemi started his ninety-ninth Formula E race in sublime fashion, after claiming a record-equalling fifteenth pole position, which interestingly was his first pole position since 2019. The Swiss driver led the opening stages, but ultimately slipped to fourth by the end of the race, with the Porsche powertrains having been too strong to deal with.

Somewhat ironically ahead of his one-hundredth race and the second race of the weekend at the Riyadh Street Circuit, Buemi was knocked out of the duels at the Semi-Final stage by Jake Hughes, the person he beat in the Final ahead of Race One. Buemi performed strongly again in the second race and managed to claim sixth moments before the line. Buemi overtook Mitch Evans who effectively pushed Hughes over the line, with his car having shutdown after running out of energy. Buemi came ridiculously close to beating Hughes to the line as well, but ended the race just 0.080s behind the rookie.

Despite having missed out on consecutive top five finishes in Diriyah, it was still a really impressive weekend for the thirty-four year-old, who sits third in the Drivers’ Championship. Whilst his results were solid, Buemi believes that he “could’ve achieved more”, but that overall his team are certainly “getting better and better”.

“It has been a good weekend, finishing in the points in both races, pole position on Saturday. I had a good car today, and I think I was a bit unlucky in turn one at the start where I lost two positions and it is very difficult to overtake, so that put me at a disadvantage. I had plenty of energy at the end of the race, which was the opposite of yesterday, and I felt like I could’ve achieved more.

“I did get lucky at the final corner where Hughes lost power and his car shut down, which meant I managed to pass Mitch (Evans) on the line, and actually narrowly missed out on fifth by a few thousandths of a second. I feel we are getting stronger, and now we can regroup and look towards India, and I feel we are getting better and better.”