Envision drivers explain retirements at Formula E race in Berlin: "Why did this happen to us twice? I have no idea!"

Envision Racing suffered a double retirement in Sunday's race at the Berlin E-Prix. Both Sebastien Buemi and Robin Frijns stopped in turn 1 for no apparent reason. After the race, the two drivers reported on the strange reason for their retirement.

"The fire extinguisher on the car went off", is how Robin Frijns described the reason for his retirement when asked by e-Formula.news. "A piece of rubber pulled the cable in the middle of the straight."

"There are two red loops on the side of the car," describes the Dutchman. "In the event of a fire, these can be pulled manually by the marshals. Especially after the last corner, many pieces of rubber fell off the tyres. One of them caught this loop and pulled it out."

Unlikely event happens twice

"A piece of rubber from the tyre triggered my fire extinguisher", Sebastien Buemi also explains at the microphone of e-Formula.news that he had the same issue. "The piece of rubber flew up and hit the switch on the side box. The car then switches off automatically."

"Why did that happen twice in our car? No idea", Buemi continued. "It has happened before in Formula E, but not twice within ten minutes with the same team on the same corner."

A strange coincidence that both of the team's drivers were eliminated in this way. For Robin Frijns in particular, however, this fits seamlessly into a season in which nothing has gone according to plan. "It hasn't changed anything for me because it has been like this for the last twelve races", said a dejected Frijns, who skipped the WEC race in Sao Paulo for the Berlin E-Prix. "But I didn't expect anything else today."

Envision Racing only occupies ninth place overall in the teams' standings after 14 of 16 races this season. Buemi and Frijns will have another opportunity to score points at the London E-Prix in just under two weeks' time. That will be the final race weekend of the 2024-25 season.