Formula E Diriyah ePrix II
Diriyah FE pole leaves Buemi "sad" at how Nissan spell ended
Sebastien Buemi says his pole position pace at the Diriyah E-Prix is "just the beginning", but conceded it left him "sad" at how his time with Nissan ended.
Jake Boxall-Legge
Edited: Jan 28, 2023, 2:46 PM
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The 2015-16 Formula E champion joined the Envision team for this season after leaving Nissan, as the British team began a partnership with Jaguar for the Gen3 era.
Buemi had been with Nissan through its various incarnations since the beginning of Formula E in 2014, joining the then-e.dams Renault team for the all-electric championship's inaugural season.
After a disappointing past two seasons at Nissan as the Japanese manufacturer struggled with its powertrain, Buemi has kicked off life with Envision in strong form, making the duels in the Mexico and Diriyah openers - and scoring pole in the latter.
He felt that his results so far in 2022-23 were more representative of his skills behind the wheel, but that it was bittersweet given his struggles at Nissan over the past two years.
"It's just the beginning, I have to say. It's just one race but, if you look at Mexico, I was in the duels," Buemi told Motorsport.com.
"Here again, with pole, it just shows that if I have the car, I can do well.
"It just makes me a bit sad with what happened last year, as we won so much together.
"And then how it ended, it was not nice because I deserved a bit more respect, I guess. But, it's motorsport, huh? It's like that."
Sebastien Buemi, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6, Jake Hughes, McLaren, e-4ORCE 04, Sam Bird, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Buemi reckoned that he could have beaten Sam Bird to third in the first race of the Saudi Arabia double header, but conceded that his lack of knowledge of the Jaguar's systems counted against him.
The Swiss driver's pre-season testing programme in Valencia was hit by mechanical and braking issues, causing Buemi to lose out on seat time.
He added that he will "do something similar" in qualifying for the second race in an effort to secure back-to-back poles, and has an inkling of what setup changes he may need to secure a podium finish.
"I guess I lacked a bit of practice with the car and that steering wheel and those systems compared to Sam. I don't necessarily think he was faster than me, but I just don't know the system well enough yet," he explained.
"He did a bit of a better job. I think P3 could have been possible if I would've had more experience with the car. But at the end I'm happy with qualifying. We have the speed in quali, but then in the race we're not there.
"I'll try to go with something similar for qualifying because it looks like it's been okay. If you look at my pace in the shakedown, FP1, FP2, and quality, I was there.
"If I can replicate the strong qualifying, then I'll try something quite different for the race. I have a few ideas on the setup to try to improve, so I'll try something."
Read Also:
- Bird's Diriyah FE podium a "reward" for Jaguar team's hard work
- Van der Linde pleased by Diriyah FE despite "uphill battle" debut
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