Sebastien Buemi believes that his inability to use Fanboost cost him victory in Marrakesh.
The Swiss driver was leading from Felix Rosenqvist when the Mahindra Racing driver overtook him for the lead shortly after the pitstops.
Buemi however was unable to use a Fanboost as a late switch meant that his second car wasn’t programmed to use it.
This was due to him having to switch the order of his cars around after Renault e.dams found a water leak, and as Fanboost is only available in the second half of the race his first car wasn’t set-up to use it.
Had the extra power available to him, Buemi believes that he would have been able to defend from Rosenqvist when he made his move for the lead.
Speaking to Autosport Buemi said he only found out that he didn’t have it when he went to use it, saying “It was not reset for the second car. Only when I tried to use it and it didn’t work we thought about it.
“I expected the Fanboost to work, then because it didn’t I thought ‘Do I block or not? Do I use it at Turn 10?’
“I got out of rhythm, I should have closed the door better. He would have struggled [to pass after that] because the pace would have been similar.”
Despite losing out on the win, Buemi said he was delighted to show his competitors that Renault were still a force to be reckoned with.
“When you lose a race you always end up a bit disappointed,” Buemi said. “But everyone thought we had no pace and we were done, and we came here, had pole and finished second.
“We showed everyone we’re still there.”