Motoring
Take a step inside Sébastien Buemi's electric dreams
We caught up with Formula E star and former champion Sébastien Buemi to talk about the exciting world of all-electric racing and red-hot rivalries.
Sébastien Buemi won the FIA Formula E World Championship in 2015-16 and he gives us his thoughts on the latest Formula E season, the wider future of electric powered motorsport and his battle with Audi Sport driver and reigning champion Lucas Di Grassi.
This season the Swiss driver will be looking to reclaim the Formula E crown in his Renault e.dams machine and he also has the chance to race in front of his home fans as the series visits Zurich for the first time.
3 min
Sébastien Buemi talks about the exciting world of electric racing
An interview with racing star Sébastien Buemi, who talks about Formula E.
You've raced Formula One, World Endurance Championship and Formula E – how difficult is it adapting to such varied types of racing car?
To be honest, many people expect us to say there are huge amount of differences, you can’t do this and you can’t do that, but basically we try to develop the electric car in a way that is very transparent to the driver, so when you drive it you feel very small difference to a normal petrol engine.
For example, the biggest difference is the noise – you have no noise in an electric car, or very little, and also it's a little bit about the way the car feels because you have a very heavy battery at the back of the car, which even with the latest technology you still feel it's affecting the handling of the car.
It's very simple. You have no gears, just the throttle and the brake – very easy to drive, so there aren’t so many differences.
Buemi is very proud to have joined Formula E
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Buemi versus Lucas Di Grassi. How important are rivalries in defining Formula E?
It's very important to have those kind of things because you need the fans to engage and to engage they need to have their best driver and they need to feel close to the driver and that's why Formula E is really open with social media giving fans access to anyone. So rivalry is part of the game and it's important and even if we don’t understand each other well, like with Di Grassi, I think it's good because it will engage the people to follow the sport.
Formula E has no limits. If you're really part of the championship like we are you understand how quickly it develops, how quickly it improves.
This season the Swiss driver will be looking to reclaim the Formula E title
© Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool
Can other racing series' learn from Formula E?
I think because Formula E is growing it's difficult to say yet whether the we've done everything right or not – it can still improve massively and Formula One remains the pinnacle of motorsport, but I would say the fact we're engaging with young people and having the social media very open, you know you want to attract young people into the sport because this is the future.
You need to attract fans when they are young and Formula E, I’ve never seen so many people as I have at a Formula E race, because you don’t have problem with your ears because of the noise, so the people coming to Formula E are different people than those that go to F1. In terms of opening up to the fans and engagement Formula E is doing very well.
What do you think is possible in the future for Formula E?
There's no limit. If you're really part of the championship like we are you understand how quickly it develops, how quickly it improves. It's incredible, the rate of improvement has been amazing over the last few years and we already know what the next technology can do and it's really impressive, so I am really very proud that I joined Formula E at the start and am able to witness this improvement.
Sébastien Buemi's latest challenge
© Thomas Stöckli / Red Bull Content Pool
Excited about a home race in Switzerland next year?
I think it's very important. First of all because Switzerland is a big market for electric cars and as a Swiss driver it wasn't even a dream in the past because I knew it wasn't possible because we had regulations against racing since the Le Mans accident in 1955. So I couldn't even dream of it and now it's happening and it's an amazing feeling.
It may sound normal to a French driver or an Italian driver because they've been having their home races since forever, but for me it's something very big and I'm looking forward to the race in Zurich.
