Sébastien
Buemi

Sébastien Buemi was born in Aigle, Switzerland, in 1988. His family also includes racing drivers: his grandfather Georges Gachnang and his cousin Natacha Gachnang. After karting he competed in German Formula BMW in 2004 and 2005, finishing third and then second in the championship. In 2006 he moved up to the Formula Three Euroseries, finishing 12th, and in 2007 he was runner-up behind Romain Grosjean. In 2008 he took second place in the GP2 Asia Series with Arden International and finished sixth in the main GP2 season, with two wins. That year he was also test and reserve driver for Red Bull Racing.

Buemi drove for Toro Rosso in Formula One from 2009 to 2011, starting 55 races. He was the first Swiss driver to take part in a Formula One race since Jean-Denis Délétraz in 1995. On his debut in Australia in 2009 he finished eighth, and he was promoted to seventh when Lewis Hamilton was disqualified. He ended the world championship 16th in both 2009 and 2010, and 15th in 2011. The team dropped him at the end of 2011, with Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne taking the seats. In 2012 Buemi returned to Red Bull Racing as test and reserve driver and kept that role in 2013 and 2014. For 2019 he was named reserve driver again.

His career in the World Endurance Championship with Toyota began in 2012. In 2014 he became LMP1 world champion with Anthony Davidson. In 2018 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and then the 2018-19 championship. Further Le Mans wins followed in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

In Formula E, Buemi raced for e.dams from 2014 to 2022, first with Renault and later with Nissan. He was runner-up in 2014-15, one point behind Nelson Piquet Jr. He won the title in 2015-16, when the bonus point for fastest lap decided the London finale against Lucas di Grassi. In 2016-17 he won six races but lost the title to di Grassi in the end. In October 2022 he announced his move to Envision Racing.

Source: Wikipedia, “Sébastien Buemi”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.