FE: Buemi - Cold weather a factor in Paris woes

Sebastien Buemi admits Renault e.dams did not do a good enough job dealing with the conditions in Paris after losing ground to Formula E title rival Lucas di Grassi.

Ambient temperature barely passed 50 degrees on raceday in France, the coldest conditions FE teams have ever faced during an event. This made getting the tires and carbon brakes up to temperature difficult, particularly as the series bans tire warmers, and after topping practice Buemi was a second off the pace in qualifying and started eighth.

Although he was able to salvage third place in the race he has now fallen to 11 points behind championship leader di Grassi, who claimed his third victory of the season.

"It's just strange because it was so cold here, we've never had it so cold, and we didn't do a good job trying to anticipate that," Buemi said. "We didn't expect to struggle so much with that, so once we go back to a normal temperature we should be good. Obviously it's a shame because we have the speed in the race. We were quick, otherwise we wouldn't have come back like that.

"But in qualifying I couldn't get [the tires] to start, and after the pit stops it was the same, that was our main issue."

Prior to the French event, Buemi had targeted a return to the race-winning form he enjoyed at the start of the season. Renault stripped its Z.E.15s apart after the long-haul first leg of the season finally came to an end after Long Beach, and discovered component degradation, particularly with the brakes. Buemi said this resolved the issues he had suffered in several qualifying sessions this season but was masked by the tire temperature problems.

"The problem on the brakes is now gone," he confirmed. "We are working as hard as we can, Renault is putting a lot of effort into it. We had a big advantage but I'm not sure we're the best anymore. The season is long and we will fight to the end."

Originally on Autosport.com