Formula E driver Buemi turned down Red Bull offer to return to F1: "Would have had the chance again"

Formula E champion 2015/16, four-time champion of the World Endurance Championship and four-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans: Sebastien Buemi has celebrated many major victories in his career. In the self-proclaimed "top class" of motorsport, Formula 1, however, it has never been enough for the Swiss driver. Although a return a few years later was a possibility for Buemi, he decided against it.

55 race starts, 29 championship points and two seventh places as his best results: Sebastien Buemi's Formula 1 career came to an end after three years with Scuderia Toro Rosso, Red Bull Racing's junior team. Red Bull decided to start the 2012 season with Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne instead. There was no more room for Buemi as a regular driver. Instead, he became a test and reserve driver at Red Bull for many years. A possible return failed years later.

"We had a conversation with Christian Horner and Dr. Marko in 2018," Buemi describes on the YouTube channel of e-Formel.de. "But that didn't really make sense for me because I had good contracts in Formula E and with Toyota. I would have had the chance to drive for Toro Rosso again. But for me it was better to continue on my path than to return to Formula 1."

"It wasn't my decision, I had to deal with it"

At the beginning of 2019, Helmut Marko revealed to Motorsport.com exactly what Buemi meant by this: "We could not offer him this salary at Toro Rosso that he earns in Formula E and WEC." At the end of 2011, that had sounded very different. "We did not see any further potential for growth. We need winners", Marko had said about Buemi at the time. Nevertheless, the Swiss is looking in vain for bad blood over the situation at the time.

"I think Red Bull and Dr Marko have done a lot for me," he says of his former supporters. "I am very grateful for that. Of course, I did not really understand the decision at the time - I would have loved to drive the Red Bull car. But it was not my decision and I had to deal with it."

"You also have to be lucky in motorsport"

"That was very difficult at the time," he continues. "You have done everything your whole life to drive in Formula 1. These decisions are not easy to understand, but I stayed with Red Bull as a reserve driver at the time. You just have to accept that and immediately think about your future again."

Instead, his path led him to the World Endurance Championship and Formula E, where he was very successful. "I immediately focussed on Toyota in WEC again. It was not so easy at the beginning, but I knew that the speed was there. You also have to have a bit of luck in motorsport. And I've been very lucky in WEC and Formula E. I won both championships, but you also have to be a bit lucky to be in the right team at the right time. And in Formula 1, it wasn't the right time (for me)."

Buemi is one of the most successful drivers in Formula E. Nevertheless, he has been waiting for a race win for 76 races: the Swiss driver won his last race in the electric series in New York City in season 5, back then still for Nissan e.dams.