Who is Sebastien Buemi?

The racing pathway

Buemi was born in Aigle, Switzerland in 1988. His early career ran through European Formula 3 and the GP2 Series before he reached Formula 1 in 2009 with Toro Rosso. Three seasons at the Faenza-based team produced 29 starts and a best finish of seventh at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix. He left F1 at the end of 2011 and pivoted to dual programmes in endurance racing and Formula E.

The Toyota WEC programme picked him up for 2014 after Anthony Davidson, his now-long-time team-mate, recommended him during the TS040 Hybrid development. The pairing with Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima in the No. 8 became one of the WEC's most stable factory crews of the LMP1-Hybrid era.

The LMP1-Hybrid years

Buemi's first WEC title came in 2014 with Davidson and the Toyota TS040 Hybrid, beating Audi's Andre Lotterer crew to the Drivers' championship in a season where Toyota took 5 race wins. The 2015 and 2016 seasons were Porsche-dominated and Buemi's WEC results were inconsistent against the 919 Hybrid.

The 2018-2019 super-season was Buemi's breakthrough at Le Mans. The No. 8 crew of Buemi, Nakajima and Fernando Alonso won three of the eight races including the 2018 and 2019 24 Hours, taking both the team and drivers' titles. The 2020 Le Mans (run in September after Covid delays) made it three consecutive wins, this time with Hartley joining the crew after Alonso departed.

The Hypercar transition

Buemi moved to the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid for the 2021 season and won the season opener at Spa. He finished second at the 2022 Le Mans behind his own teammates in the No. 7. The 2022 WEC Drivers' title went to Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa after a season-long battle with the No. 7 of Conway, Kobayashi and Lopez.

His 2025 season was the first in which Toyota was not the dominant force in Hypercar. Ferrari's run of dominance pushed the No. 8 to second in the manufacturers' standings, and Buemi's win count slowed compared to the LMP1-Hybrid years. He remains the only driver in the 27-wins-and-counting tier of the all-time WEC list.

The Formula E parallel career

Buemi's Formula E career ran in parallel with the WEC programme from the championship's inaugural 2014-2015 season. He won the Drivers' title in 2015-2016 with Renault e.dams, finishing the season with five wins. He raced for Nissan e.dams from 2018 to 2022 and Envision Racing from 2023 onward. He is one of only a handful of drivers to have won both the WEC Drivers' title and the Formula E Drivers' title.

The dual programme has been operationally difficult through the years; Buemi has missed WEC test days and free practices to fulfil Formula E commitments at least three times in the LMP1-Hybrid era. Toyota's management explicitly tolerated the schedule clashes in his contract.

Records and milestones

Buemi's WEC records as of the end of the 2025 season:

- 27 overall WEC race wins (all-time leader, three ahead of Hartley) - 9 race pole positions (sixth-equal on the all-time list with Timo Bernhard) - 15 race fastest laps (sixth on the all-time list) - 3 24 Hours of Le Mans overall wins (2018, 2019, 2020) - 3 WEC Drivers' Championships (2014, 2018-2019, 2022) - More than 200 WEC race starts across the LMP1-Hybrid and Hypercar eras combined

What is next

Buemi's contract with Toyota runs through 2026 with options for 2027. He is the senior driver in the works No. 8 crew and one of three drivers (alongside Hartley and Kobayashi) still active from the pre-2019 WEC era. The record list is unlikely to slow until he steps down; his closest active challenger, Hartley, sits three wins behind in the same car.

The Formula E commitment runs through the 2026-2027 season. Whether Buemi continues both programmes depends on how Toyota's Hypercar effort responds to the Genesis, Ford and McLaren arrivals in 2026 and 2027.