Envision Racing enjoyed a “very productive” double-header in Diriyah, with Sébastian Buemi having finished in the points in both races, as well as having claimed a record-equalling fifteenth pole position in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
The 2022/23 season is certainly starting very positively for Envision, who looked competitive all weekend at the Riyadh Street Circuit. After claiming pole for the first race of the weekend, Buemi went on to miss out on a first podium of the year, with the Swiss driver having been forced to settle for fourth. The former Formula E Champion qualified incredibly well again ahead of Race Two, with the Envision newbie having managed to claim fourth on the grid. The second race was much more challenging for Buemi, though, who just missed out on a top five finish by 0.080s, leaving him in sixth.
On the other side of the Envision Racing garage and it was a mixed weekend for Nick Cassidy, who actually performed strongly in Race One. After qualifying tenth, the New Zealander made excellent progress in the race to finish sixth, to seal a four-six finish for the team. Race Two, though, was highly disappointing for the twenty-eight year-old, who finished thirteenth after qualifying fifteenth.
Despite Cassidy’s unfortunate second race of the weekend, Envision still managed to claim points through Buemi in both races, and Cassidy in the first, meaning not all was lost. It was still an incredibly positive weekend for the Silverstone-based team, who sit fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Team Principal Sylvain Filippi admitted that the team are still trying to gather an understanding of “what works and what doesn’t work” with their Jaguar-powered Gen3 challenger, due to it still being such “early days” in the new era. Despite this, the team still achieved their goal of scoring more points, with Buemi’s and Cassidy’s one-lap pace having been highly impressive in particular.
“It has been another eventful day, and a very productive day. The objective was to score points, but we are also still learning. It is very early days in the GEN3 era and it’s important that we understand what works and what doesn’t work with the car. Seb was really strong again in qualifying and fourth on the grid was a very good result, plus he was also second quickest in his group.
“Unfortunately, Seb was a bit unlucky at the start of the race and lost two places, but good Attack Mode strategy helped him recover and of course he managed to pass Mitch Evans right at the end.”
