WEC clashes led to Buemi stepping away from Formula E racing

Sebastien Buemi has acknowledged that the challenges of competing in both Formula E and the World Endurance Championship was a key factor in him not retaining his full-time drive with Envision Racing next season.

Envision announced on Thursday that neither Buemi or teammate Joel Eriksson will be retained for the 2026-27 campaign, with the Buemi part of the equation not coming as a huge surprise given that he’s spoken before of the potential of stepping away from the championship should date clashes with WEC persist.

“Of course, if I was not competing in WEC, or if I had the priority for Formula E, I would still be here,” Buemi told RACER. “Ultimately, it’s a joint decision. Even if I feel like I could have done it – we've discussed that already for the last four years, but mainly in the last few months, we've looked at it.

“Next year, the championship is going to end something like a month before, WEC is going to have an extra race in that same period, and Formula E is going to have two extra races, so unfortunately, it is not impossible to do.”

Although not racing for Envision – which on Friday confirmed a new title sponsorship with payment platform PaySafe – next year, Buemi will remain part of the team in an advisory role. The exact make-up of the role is still to be determined, but it will include simulator and possibly real-world testing, and Buemi says it shows that the team wanted to keep him onboard even though outside factors have influenced the mutual decision to not have him race.

“I think it shows the intent that the team has with me, and they want me to be part of it,” he said. “Ultimately we are still trying to figure out exactly what I will do, but we've announced a title sponsorship with PaySafe today, so ultimately that will require a lot more work and we'll do a lot of activations at a few racetracks. So I will attend a few races, obviously when I can, and it doesn't make my life too stressful with WEC and obviously my job at Red Bull [where he still serves as a simulator driver for the company's Formula 1 team] because that's also part of what I do. 

“I will do some simulator for [Envision] and potentially test the car a few times. So we're still trying to put the calendar together because the idea really is to make it easier for me and still somehow bring the most possible to the team.”

Next season there will be one clash between both series with the Formula E doubleheader in Shanghai and WEC’s 6 Hours of São Paulo both set to take place on the weekend of July 10-11. The original calendar announcement had two clashes, but the Monaco E-Prix has since been moved to a new date on May 1-2, avoiding the 6 Hours of Spa.

Four other drivers in the current Formula E field – Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nick Cassidy of Citroen, and Nissan’s Norman Nato – pull double duty in Formula E and WEC, with new Opel signing Theo Pourchaire joining that list next season. For the likes of Vergne, Cassidy, and Pourchaire who race for Stellantis brands in Formula E and Peugeot from the same conglomerate in WEC, Buemi – who races for Toyota in WEC – says the challenge might be easier.

“I guess for the Stellantis drivers that will somehow do it next year, it's the same employer, it's the same brand, it's maybe a bit easier to handle,” he said. “But for someone like me competing in a totally different category with a different brand, it was going to be extremely difficult to do it. 

“I don't think it would have been impossible. But if we would be in the fourth year of GEN3 it would have somehow made it easier, but now with the GEN4 coming in, there are so many more test days planned, even if you are a customer team, and ultimately you want to make sure that if you do compete, you compete at the high level with a good preparation. There is lots at stake, and we came to the conclusion that doing it would have been very, very difficult.

“So I feel like I'm not going to be on the grid next year for the wrong reasons, because usually you're not on the grid because you are too slow, or because nobody wants you, or because you're too old. That's not the case. It's just because there are not enough days in the year and too many races.”

Despite stepping back for next season, unlike long-time rival Lucas di Grassi, Buemi is stopping short of calling it an outright retirement from Formula E, leaving the door open to return should the calendars allow it in future seasons.

“I don't want to close any doors,” the 2015-16 Formula E champion said. “You don't know how the calendars and how the championship evolves. 

“Of course, I'm not the youngest anymore, but I guess it's a bit different to look at as fully retiring. It's something different, and I guess if I was doing the same, I would be very emotional. But for me, this weekend I absolutely feel nothing. I'm doing my race, I'm going to focus on extracting the most, hopefully having a great weekend, and then I’ll move on. When everyone's going to be on holiday, I'll be racing in Austin in less than three weeks time, so it doesn't affect me maybe the same way.”