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Julius Baer Punta del Este race winner Sebastien Buemi reflects on his first Formula E victory with e.dams-Renault and looks ahead to the next race in Buenos Aires. The Swiss driver now sits second in the championship standings 18 points adrift of Audi Sport ABT’s Lucas di Grassi…
Congratulations on your victory in Punta del Este. It was both yours and e.dams-Renault’s first Formula E win. What are your thoughts looking back on the race?
“Well I think it was a great day and it was a tough and long event, everything in a single day. You know it has been a great journey because we showed fantastic form in winter testing at Donington Park and we had a really bad start in Beijing and more or less a good race in Putrajaya with the third place. Finally to win here is perfect as the team has pushed very hard and the team deserve it so I’m glad we finally managed to nail it here.”
Tell us about the battle with Jean-Eric Vergne, it looked close out there on track?
“I knew he was going to use his FanBoost, clearly we took it a little bit too safe in the last few laps when he started to catch me because I was still trying to save energy. Then at the restart I locked the rear wheels twice in the chicane so it was a bit on the edge. I knew he was going to be fast but I don’t know what happened to him in the end. I’m really happy with today’s result.”
After a difficult race in Beijing and a hard-fought podium from the back of the grid in Putrajaya, do you think this result can act as a platform to help chase the championship leader?
“Yes, I think we are now second in the drivers’ championship and top of the team standings so I think clearly it is the start of something good. We need to make sure that we continue to build on these sort of performances. Clearly we had a good car in pre-season testing at a more traditional racing circuit and we then struggled to adapt the car to street circuits. Now we seem to have found a very good compromise so let’s wait and see what happens in Buenos Aires.”
With the importance of battery management and varying strategies – including the use of FanBoost – are you getting used to this new type of racing?
“Clearly it’s important to learn as much as possible on the strategy side of things but I would say that with the many safety cars we’ve had so far we never had to save a lot of energy. As soon as you are behind the safety car you save so much energy. We test a lot during the free practice long runs trying to see the energy [levels] to make sure we will finish the race within the regulations. But with the safety cars we didn’t really have to save a lot – when we did the testing at Donington we really had to make sure we would save power and just be right on the target. But here when I jumped in the second car I didn’t have to save much. Normally we lift at the end of the straight to try to make sure we drive without consuming energy but it wasn’t an issue. We do know, more-or-less, how to do it since the first couple of races. We’ve learnt many things but we never really had to implement it in the races so far.”
Are you enjoying the racing – it looked like a lot of fun racing wheel-to-wheel with drivers at the front of the grid?
“Yeah I’m really enjoying it. It was a great race and spectacle yesterday, not only because we won but more because it was nice to watch for the fans. I think if the championship continues like this it will be a good year.”
The next race is the second event in South America in the city of Buenos Aires, have you had chance to look at the track?
“I’m looking forward to going there, Argentina is a great place. I heard it is going to be a great track with some very fast sections and it’s in a beautiful location. Let’s hope we can enjoy a similar result next time out.”