During the first two seasons, Renault e.dams embraced the challenge of the Formula E championship from the outset, by winning the teams’ title on two consecutive occasions. Sébastien Buemi missed the drivers’ crown by only one point in the first season, but fought back even stronger in the second year and was crowned champion after a thrilling season finale in London.
This year, Renault e.dams managed yet again, to win the title thanks to a stunning level of consistency with six victories out of twelve races. They are the only team to have scored points in each race. With the squad very keen to reclaim their crown, the team and Sébastien Buemi were victorious at the opening round in Hong Kong. More wins followed in Marrakech and Buenos Aires. The team soon returned to winning ways in Monaco, where the Swiss driver started from pole position – his first of the season, and he remained unchallenged on the Monegasque track. One week later in Paris, Sébastien offered his first victory on home soil to Renault e.dams. He then added another victory to his tally in the second race in Berlin – his sixth in eight races. Meanwhile, Nico Prost allowed the team to get closer to the teams’ title by scoring valuable points in each round and was the only driver to have accomplished this impressive feat.
The race for the title was very tight at the Montreal season finale as only 18 points separated Sébastien from his closest rival, Lucas di Grassi, as they approached the decisive weekend in Canada. Unfortunately, the team had a disappointing day on Saturday with Sébastien’s accident in free practice and his disqualification, while bad luck returned on Sunday with a tough race for both drivers.
Renault ; pioneers and European leaders in electric vehicles, have been officially engaged as a technical partner for the inaugural Formula E championship since 2013. The impact of Renault went even deeper after they became the main sponsor of the e.dams team. Owned by Alain Prost and Jean-Paul Driot, their exciting, new journey opened up in September 2014 at Beijing. With this partnership, Renault fully invested in a new and particularly innovative discipline, with the will to show their double expertise in both motorsport and electric vehicles. The engagement and success from the championship are a massive boost in developing the electric range. Renault presents the Zoe eSport concept car at the Geneva show this year, which is an updated version of its success model, issued with the latest technologies from Formula E.
The FIA Formula E championship is innovative amongst other racing disciplines because of its close collaboration with fans worldwide. By investing in some of the most enthralling and dynamix cities, the wide reach of fans that are met takes the category to a new level. Formula E now features many high-profile manufacturers and is proven as a serious and well-respected category in the motorsport world. The announcement of Mercedes and Porsche into the championship for seasons 5 and 6 only confirms the enormous value of the discipline.
Renault e.dams scored a total of 268 points to take their third crown. Sébastien achieved a total of 157 points with six wins, with Nico scoring 93 points.
Renault e.dams thank their partners HP, Richard Mille, Lemo, Julius Baer and 8Js for their engagement and support during the whole season. They all contributed to the success of the team.
Renault e.dams will come back again next season to fight for even more silverware.
Alain Prost, co-owner of the team : “I would like to congratulate Jean-Eric Vergne for his first victory in Formula E, as well as the other drivers, and also Lucas Di Grassi on winning the drivers’ championship. We thought we could win both titles today but it was not possible. The championship is getting more and more competitive at the highest level. We are very happy to win the teams’ championship for a third consecutive year. The show this weekend was amazing, we raced on one of the bes tracks of the season. Everybody was so happy to be there. I would like to thank our partners for their support, in particular Renault. We will be back next year, for more success hopefully.”
Jean-Paul Driot, co-owner of the team : “This weekend in Montreal was one of the most difficult weekends over my whole career as a team owner. But I would like to congratulate the whole team of mechanics for their incredible work this weekend, in allowing Sébastien to be able to take his chance to fight for the title, despite one of the most significant crashes in Formula E that we’ve seen over the three seasons. We are delighted to win the teams’ championship for the third time in a row. I hope that in the future, we won’t have any other clashes of dates with other championships, in order to maintain equality that will be respected.”
Jérôme Stoll, President of Renault Sport Racing : “When Renault entered Formula E in the beginning, it was always to win and to innovate. To win three titles in three seasons, is incredible. I would like to congratulate the whole team for their hard work over the season. Every year, the level gets higher but Renault, thanks to their skills in electric technologies, remains more than ever, the leader of the Formula E championship. We will be back next season to fight hard, to retain our title and to try to win both titles again.”
Nico Prost, #8 : “It was not an easy year. I had difficulties in qualifying over the whole season. Ending the championship in sixth is not very satisfying. We leave Montreal with the team title, which was one of our objectives and we will try our best to come back stronger next season.”
Séb Buemi, #9 : “I am happy for the team, they really deserve this title. The car was amazing for the whole season. Unfortunately, it has not ended well for me but that’s racing and I have to accept it. We have to learn from our mistakes to come back stronger next year.”
# # #