Recharged: RENAULT e.dams confirm Prost and Buemi

RENAULT e.dams is delighted to announce Nicolas Prost and Sébastien Buemi as its official driver line-up for the 2015/16 FIA Formula E Championship campaign, which kicks off on October 17 in Beijing, China.

The current Teams’ Champion welcomed the pair back to the fold for official pre-season testing at Donington Park following an extremely successful inaugural campaign in the FIA’s all-electric championship.

The three two-day sessions offered RENAULT e.dams an opportunity to evaluate and test its new-for-2015 Renault Z.E.15 powertrain with known quantities Prost and Buemi back behind the wheel. Indeed, the entire team were satisfied with the overall performance at the Leicestershire track, finishing on top in three of the six days.

Nico, Sébastien and the RENAULT e.dams squad will shortly make their way to China for the first FIA Formula E Championship event of the 2015/16 season.

Prost brought his first season in FIA Formula E to a close with a pair of pole positions, one win and a podium, which was enough for him to secure sixth place in the final championship standings. He also proved his mettle at Donington Park, ending the final day of testing on a high by topping the times.

Buemi’s 2014/15 FIA Formula E season came to an end in a truly bittersweet fashion as, with three victories and an additional two podiums to his name, the young Swiss missed out on the Drivers’ title by only one point to Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr. at the final round in London.

#8 Nico Prost: “I’m delighted to be remaining with RENAULT e.dams for this year’s FIA Formula E Championship. It’s important to stay in the same team for the sake of continuity. Everyone knows each other well and it’s much easier to work with the same guys and in the same environment. It’ll be exciting to see what we can achieve this year, especially with the new powertrain from Renault and a promising first run at Donington.”

#9 Sébastien Buemi: “I’m so pleased that I’ll be working with the guys at RENAULT e.dams again because we all get on so well. The team is a little bigger than last year with Renault being on board but having a big manufacturer like that only strengthens the team. After our promising performance testing things are looking good, but it’s too early to say what will happen during the season. Let’s see!”

Nico’s career overview
Born in Saint-Chamond, France, Nicolas Prost has enjoyed a prolific career in motor racing having competed in some of the world’s top single-seater and sportscar championships.

Although a relative latecomer to the sport, Prost joined Racing Engineering for their 2006 Spanish Formula Three Championship campaign, where he won one race and scored six additional podiums, earning him the rookie title.

Then, in 2008, he stepped up to the Euroseries 3000 category and won the title after displaying a remarkable level of consistency throughout the 16-race season. That trait would prove vital to Nico’s full-time endurance racing switch a year later, where fast, mistake-free driving is essential.

Competing for the Anglo-Swiss Rebellion Racing team, Nico has gone on to contest the world-famous Le Mans 24 Hours on seven occasions, recording a best finish of fourth in 2012 and ‘14. He has also enjoyed success in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Le Mans Series and Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

Between 2012 and ‘14 Prost dovetailed his endurance racing commitments with his test driver role at the Lotus-Renault Formula 1 team where he carried out significant levels of development work aboard the squad’s grand prix-winning cars.

Séb’s career overview
At only 26 years old, Sébastien Buemi has enjoyed a fantastic career thus far having raced at the pinnacle of single-seater and sportscar competition. He started racing competitively in karting aged eight and steadily climbed the European motorsport ladder. In 2004 he was picked up by Red Bull after graduating to single-seaters and shining in Formula BMW.

He maintained that momentum in Formula Three and A1GP en route to the GP2 Series, Formula One’s official feeder category. Then, in early 2009, Scuderia Toro Rosso confirmed that Buemi would be one of its drivers for the upcoming season. The Swiss wasted no time making a strong impression by securing his maiden championship points on debut in Melbourne.

He went on to complete three full seasons with the Faenza-based outfit and contested a total of 55 grands prix. This year he has also been retained as Red Bull Racing’s Reserve Driver for the fifth time.

In 2012 Sébastien drove alongside Briton Anthony Davidson and Stéphane Sarrazin in the blue riband Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota Motorsport GmbH. The following year he continued with the team for a full FIA World Endurance Championship season, and was crowned Drivers’ Champion with team-mate Davidson in 2014 with four wins and seven podiums from the eight races.