Sébastien Buemi

Sébastien Olivier Humbert Buemi (born 31 October 1988) is a Swiss racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2009 to 2011, before achieving extraordinary success in endurance racing and Formula E, winning four FIA World Endurance Championships, four 24 Hours of Le Mans victories, and the 2015-16 Formula E Championship. Born in Aigle, Switzerland, Buemi progressed through karting and junior single-seater categories during the 2000s, demonstrating the talent that would eventually bring him international success. His Formula One opportunity arrived in January 2009 when Scuderia Toro Rosso signed him as a race driver for the upcoming season. This made Buemi the first Swiss driver to participate in a Formula One race since Jean-Denis Délétraz competed for Pacific at the 1995 European Grand Prix, ending a 14-year absence for Swiss drivers from Formula One.

Buemi made his Formula One debut at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, beginning a three-season Grand Prix career with Toro Rosso. Throughout 2009-2011, Buemi competed in 55 Formula One races, partnering with drivers including Sébastien Bourdais, Jaime Alguersuari, and Daniel Ricciardo. His best Formula One finish came with seventh place at the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix, though he never stood on a Formula One podium. Buemi's Formula One tenure coincided with Toro Rosso's role as Red Bull's junior team, meaning he competed with equipment generally inferior to the championship-contending Red Bull Racing cars.

Despite this limitation, Buemi delivered solid performances, scoring occasional points and demonstrating racecraft that validated his Formula One presence. However, at the end of 2011, Toro Rosso replaced Buemi with Daniel Ricciardo, ending his Formula One career with 29 championship points from 55 race starts. Rather than marking the end of his motorsport career, leaving Formula One opened doors to categories where Buemi would achieve far greater success than his Formula One statistics suggested possible. In 2012, Buemi joined Toyota's World Endurance Championship program, beginning an endurance racing career that would bring him legendary status.

Alongside teammates including Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima, and Brendon Hartley, Buemi became one of Toyota's leading drivers, helping develop their hybrid prototypes into dominant endurance racing machines. Buemi won his first FIA World Endurance Championship in 2014, capturing the drivers' title and establishing himself among endurance racing's elite. He added further WEC championships in 2019, 2022, and 2023, giving him four world titles—a joint-record with Brendon Hartley for the most WEC championships won by any driver. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, motorsport's most prestigious endurance race, Buemi achieved four victories: 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022, all driving Toyota prototypes.

Four Le Mans wins place Buemi among the race's most successful drivers and cement his legacy as one of the greatest endurance racers of his generation. His consistency, speed, and mechanical sympathy made him invaluable to Toyota's sustained dominance of the WEC throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s. Simultaneously with his endurance racing success, Buemi has competed in Formula E since the championship's inaugural 2014-15 season, racing for e.dams Renault (later Nissan Formula E Team) and more recently for Envision.

In the 2015-16 Formula E Championship, Buemi dominated the season, winning the drivers' title with Renault e.dams and establishing himself as one of Formula E's premier drivers. Throughout his Formula E career, Buemi has accumulated the most wins in the championship's history and holds an outstanding number of Julius Baer Pole Positions, demonstrating sustained excellence across multiple seasons. His street circuit expertise has been particularly evident at Monaco, where Buemi became the only driver to win the Monaco E-Prix three times, including victory at the challenging 2024 race in wet conditions.

This triple Monaco success highlights Buemi's exceptional car control and racecraft on the narrow, demanding street circuit. Buemi's ability to compete successfully in both the World Endurance Championship and Formula E simultaneously—often racing in both series' events on consecutive weekends—demonstrates extraordinary fitness, adaptability, and commitment. Managing two full-time racing programs while maintaining championship-winning performance in both categories represents a unique achievement in modern motorsport, where specialization typically prevents drivers from competing at the highest level in multiple series. Throughout his career, Buemi has earned recognition as one of motorsport's most versatile and accomplished drivers.

While his Formula One career brought modest results, his four World Endurance Championships, four Le Mans victories, and Formula E Championship—combined with his record number of Formula E wins—establish Buemi as a champion across multiple disciplines. His success demonstrates that drivers can achieve legendary status and sustained success outside Formula One, finding categories where their talents flourish. Today, Sébastien Buemi continues racing for Toyota in the World Endurance Championship and for Envision in Formula E, adding to his already remarkable résumé while demonstrating that Swiss drivers can achieve extraordinary success at motorsport's highest levels, even if Formula One proves elusive.