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season 12

Buemi and Summerville seal ABB award in Miami

09 Feb 2026 5 Mins

A late charge sealed the ABB Engineered to Outrun Award for Sebastien Buemi and his Envision Racing engineer Connor Summerville in the 2026 Miami E-Prix.

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season 12

Buemi’s methodically-built climb from 20th on the grid to seventh overcame an unusual race as damp conditions split the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship field early in the Florida race.

This meant a conventional ‘build from the back’ strategy was compromised very early on as the drivers who went for an early ATTACK MODE activation made a break for it, using the extra power and traction with four-wheel-drive when the track grip was worse.

In the meantime, the rest of the pack condensed, which put a ceiling on what could be achieved without a big race interruption. So Buemi, starting plum last due to two penalties for inadvertently impeding others in qualifying, had to tread carefully at the back of a big queue of cars while unbeknownst to him a split in strategies further ahead was defining the rest of the race.

There were a few different ways to play this race. The worst was to end up stuck in the midfield by not committing to an early ATTACK MODE deployment, and yet not be able to save energy in a meaningful way because of the inevitable yo-yoing in the order between cars so close together. Buemi was wise to this risk.

His early laps were all about energy conservation, though he still made some progress as other drivers took a punt on dry-biased set-ups that backfired with the track never drying quickly enough. Within the first handful of laps, he had already made multiple places without spending meaningful energy.

Buemi was comfortable spending 2.3–2.5% per lap in the first third of the race, in line with the race median rather than undercutting it, but this was because other drivers in the bottom part of the field were saving more. Many in the top 10, especially those that went for ATTACK MODE early, spent energy more freely. And Buemi was playing a long game.

This didn’t make track position irrelevant, though, and where Buemi was very effective was slowly picking off drivers here and there to gradually cycle closer to the points without using ATTACK MODE himself.

By mid-distance his team-mate Joel Eriksson was part of the lead group but 4% worse off than Buemi – who was on the fringes of the point as the race moved into its second half, despite a healthier battery state of charge than the cars he was edging closer to.

What this allowed was for Buemi to up his energy usage, and his pace, still with his ATTACK MODE deployments in reserve, as shown by how his consumption increased to almost 3% a lap.

As the slower overall pace in the conditions meant energy usage was not as severe as it would have been in the dry, it was important to use up some of this advantage early – but having energy in reserve was also critical to Envision’s ATTACK MODE plan.

Buemi was already into the top 10 by this point, still picking off others including taking advantage of a collision between Felipe Drugovich and Antonio Felix da Costa, and seeing off the advances of Jake Dennis who like Buemi had been trying to recover from the back of the grid, but had started to use ATTACK MODE sooner.

Buemi was ninth as the race entered its final laps, then unleashed back-to-back late ATTACK MODE deployments. Nobody else had the full eight minutes in reserve and some were extremely vulnerable with only a couple of minutes or none left at all – and some also limping a little bit on battery, too.

He grabbed eighth from Pepe Marti on the penultimate lap, powered past a limping da Costa off the final corner to grab seventh – and nearly stole sixth from Edoardo Mortara on the run to the line, too. Mortara had started only four places ahead of Buemi on the grid and was one of the best exponents of a ‘push hard first, deal with it later’ strategy.

Given how unusually large the field spread had been at times, it was remarkable that Buemi - with fewer options started at the very back, and therefore losing more time early on - got so close to cars that were in the lead group for so long. Dennis finishing 10th from 15th, and Buemi’s fellow back-row starter Lucas di Grassi only 13th, showed progress was not a given.

There were several ways to play this race, and it was always likely to favour cars that had a clearer, quicker path to the front. Gaining 13 places from start to finish, with 14 competitive overtakes along the way amid the usual back-and-forth nature of Formula E racing, suggests Buemi made the best of a race others in his position got stuck in.

SCHEDULE: Where, when and how to watch or stream the 2026 Jeddah E-Prix, Rounds 4 and 5

Saudi Arabia has been a staple of the Formula E calendar since Season 5, and found a new home at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit last season. The double-header weekend promises plenty of action and the return of PIT BOOST, all whilst racing under the lights at night over February 13 and 14.

Free Practice 1: Thursday 12 February, 20:00 local/17:00 UTC
Free Practice 2: Friday 13 February, 13:30 local/10:30 UTC
Qualifying: Friday 13 February, 15:40 local/12:40 UTC
Race: Friday 13 February, 20:05 local/17:05 UTC

Free Practice 3: Saturday 14 February, 13:30 local/10:30 UTC
Qualifying: Saturday 14 February, 15:40 local/12:40 UTC
Race: Saturday 15 February, 20:05 local/17:05 UTC

View the full schedule in your time zone and check the broadcaster listings or tap the Ways to Watch button above to find out where to watch all the racing action where you live.

Formula E’s Evo Sessions return in Jeddah

The world’s biggest creators. The world’s fastest electric race car. EVO Sessions is back. After a legendary Season 11, we're taking the spectacle to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Don’t miss the next generation of drivers as they take on the GEN3 Evo — streaming live on YouTube, February 15.

Follow the race LIVE on web and in the Formula E app!

Follow all the action on-track as it happens in the Race Centre.

Keep across Live Timing – which includes a real-time interactive track map and the ability to follow your favourite driver during every session of every E-Prix – plus highlights, detailed session reports, exclusive interviews, all the standings and results as well as data, insight and reaction from trackside.

LIVE: Follow every lap live, with reaction and coverage at fiaformulae.com/live

Additionally, Formula E’s social media channels, website, and app will provide session reports, exclusive interviews, and behind-the-scenes insights from trackside during the five-day event.