Drivers · 4 min read · 697 words

Who is Sebastien Buemi?

Sébastien Buemi is a Swiss racing driver who has raced for Toyota in the WEC since 2012 and won the Formula E title in 2015-16. He has 29 overall WEC race wins and 4 24 Hours of Le Mans wins, three of them in a row from 2018 to 2020. He won WEC drivers' world titles in 2014, 2018-19, 2022 and 2023, and in 2026 he still races the No. 8 Toyota.

The racing pathway

Buemi was born in Aigle, Switzerland, in 1988. He raced in Formula 1 for Toro Rosso from 2009 to 2011, then built parallel careers in endurance racing and Formula E. He has raced in Formula E since its first season, 2014-15, and won the 2015-16 title with Renault e.dams.

Toyota in the LMP1 years

Buemi's first WEC race was the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota. His first overall win came at Bahrain in 2013, in the No. 8 TS030 Hybrid with Anthony Davidson and Stéphane Sarrazin.

In 2014 he won four races with Davidson in the TS040 Hybrid, and the pair took the drivers' title while Toyota won the manufacturers' title. Porsche won both titles in 2015 and 2016, and Buemi did not win a race in either season. He was part of the No. 5 crew that lost the lead of the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans in the final minutes; that race is not yet in the archive.

He won five races in 2017 in the TS050 Hybrid. In the 2018-19 super season the No. 8 crew of Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso won five of the eight races, including the 2018 and 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans, and took the drivers' title. Brendon Hartley replaced Alonso for 2019-20, and the No. 8 won Le Mans again in September 2020.

The Hypercar years

With the GR010 Hybrid, Buemi won three races in 2021, starting with the Spa opener. In 2022 he won Le Mans for a fourth time, with Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, and the same crew won the Hypercar drivers' titles in 2022 and 2023. He won twice in 2024 and not at all in 2025, when Toyota finished second to Ferrari in the manufacturers' standings.

Toyota's works team raced as Toyota Racing in 2026, with the TR010 Hybrid update of the GR010. Buemi has 3 wins in 2026, including Imola and Fuji, and his overall win total is now 29.

Records and milestones

Buemi's WEC record as of the 2026 Barcelona round:

- 29 overall WEC race wins (the all-time list is headed by Sébastien Buemi; his No. 8 team-mate Hartley has 26) - 11 overall pole positions - 16 race fastest laps credited to his car, 12 of them set by Buemi himself; the laps-set list is headed by Sébastien Buemi (how fastest laps are counted) - 4 24 Hours of Le Mans overall wins, including three in a row from 2018 to 2020 - 4 WEC drivers' world titles (2014, 2018-19, 2022, 2023), up to the end of the 2025 season - 97 WEC race starts with laps driven, 14 of them at Le Mans, in the races held in the archive; the starts record is held by Richard Lietz and Sébastien Buemi with 97

What is next

Buemi races the No. 8 Toyota in 2026 with Hartley and Hirakawa, so his win total can keep moving while he races. Hartley, on 26, shares the car with him, so the two add wins together while the crew stays unchanged.

Last updated · sebastien buemi · toyota · formula e · le mans · wec records

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Related questions

Drivers

Which driver has the most WEC overall race wins?

Sébastien Buemi has the most overall WEC race wins, with 29 victories. Buemi has 29, his long-time Toyota team-mate Brendon Hartley 26, Mike Conway 20 and Kamui Kobayashi 19. Buemi, Hartley, Conway, Kobayashi and the retired Kazuki Nakajima, who has 17, all drove for Toyota in the LMP1-Hybrid era.

Drivers

Who has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Hypercar era?

Two manufacturers have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans since the Hypercar class arrived in 2021. Toyota won in 2021, 2022 and 2026, and Ferrari won three in a row from 2023 to 2025 with the 499P. Through the 2026 race, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi are the only drivers to have won it twice in the Hypercar era.

Manufacturers

What was the Toyota TS050 Hybrid era like?

The Toyota TS050 Hybrid raced in the WEC's LMP1 class from 2016 to 2020. It won 19 WEC races, including three consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans (2018, 2019 and 2020), and its crews won the drivers' world titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20. It is also the car of one of Le Mans' best-known late losses: in 2016 the leading TS050 stopped in the final minutes and Porsche won.

Who is Sebastien Buemi? · WEC Engine