Buemi graduated from karting and spent 2004 and 2005 in German Formula BMW, finishing third and second in the championship respectively and reaching the runner-up position in the 2005 FBMW World Final. He moved to the Formula Three Euroseries in 2006, finishing 12th, then improved to second in 2007, behind Romain Grosjean. He also competed in the Masters of Formula 3 and Macau Grand Prix. During the 2006–07 A1 Grand Prix season he shared the drive for A1 Team Switzerland with Neel Jani and Marcel Fässler; the team finished eighth in the championship.
Buemi was drafted in at short notice for ART Grand Prix at the Monaco round of the 2007 GP2 Series, qualifying fourth and finishing seventh on his GP2 debut. He then joined Arden International for the 2008 GP2 Asia Series, finishing runner-up with a win and four second places. Continuing with Arden for the main 2008 GP2 season, he won the French sprint race after starting 21st on slick tyres on a drying track, added a second win, and ended sixth in the championship.
On 18 September 2007 Buemi drove the Red Bull RB3 at an F1 test in Jerez, finishing third quickest on the day. Red Bull Racing confirmed him as their test and reserve driver on 16 January 2008.
Toro Rosso confirmed Buemi as a race driver on 9 January 2009. He was the first Swiss driver to start an F1 race since Jean-Denis Délétraz drove for Pacific at the 1995 European Grand Prix. In his first race, the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, he outqualified teammate Sébastien Bourdais and scored a point finishing eighth, later promoted to seventh after Lewis Hamilton's disqualification. He scored further points at the Chinese and Brazilian Grands Prix and in Abu Dhabi, ending the year sixteenth with six points as the best rookie.
In 2010, during the first free practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix, a front suspension wishbone broke under braking at over 300 km/h. Both front wheels flew off the car; one went over the safety fence and into a spectator area, narrowly missing a camera operator. The car slid along an Armco barrier and lost its front wing. Neither Buemi nor any spectators were injured. Toro Rosso attributed the failure to a new front right upright. Buemi completed 2010 with eight points to teammate Jaime Alguersuari's five, finishing sixteenth in the championship.
He continued with Toro Rosso in 2011 alongside Alguersuari, but on 14 December 2011 both were dropped and replaced by Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne for 2012.
In January 2012 Buemi rejoined Red Bull Racing as test and reserve driver, also serving as reserve for Toro Rosso. He held that role through the 2013 and 2014 seasons and was again announced as Red Bull reserve for 2019, participating in the 2020 Young Driver Test. As of 2023 he was no longer listed on Red Bull's reserve driver roster.
Buemi signed with Toyota Motorsport GmbH to race the 2012 Le Mans in a Toyota TS030 Hybrid with Anthony Davidson and Stéphane Sarrazin (replacing the originally named Hiroaki Ishiura). The car ran in third in the early evening before Davidson collided with a GT Ferrari and crashed heavily. Buemi continued with Toyota for the full 2013 season, finishing third in the championship. In 2014 he drove the Toyota TS040 Hybrid: four wins and seven podiums from eight races delivered the World Endurance Drivers' Championship alongside Davidson.
He won the 2018 Le Mans and subsequently the 2018–19 WEC title, then won Le Mans again in 2019, 2020, and 2022. As of 2024 Buemi has remained loyal to Toyota since 2012 and is the only FIA WEC driver with that continuity at the same team and manufacturer.
Buemi entered the inaugural Formula E season racing for e.dams alongside Nicolas Prost. His first season was difficult — retirement in Beijing and a 19th-place start at Putrajaya — but he recovered to take his first Formula E win at Punta del Este and further wins at Monaco and London, ending second in the championship, one point short of Nelson Piquet Jr.
In season two (2015–16) he won the Beijing opener from pole with fastest lap, then won again in Punta del Este and Berlin. The season finale in London saw rival Lucas di Grassi hit Buemi off at the first corner of the deciding race. The title was resolved by fastest-lap bonus points; Buemi posted the fastest lap in his second car to become Formula E champion 2015–16.
Season three (2016–17) opened with three consecutive wins — the first Formula E driver to achieve that — and three more wins followed at Monaco, Paris, and Berlin. Buemi skipped the New York event to contest the 6 Hours of Nürburgring with Toyota, with Pierre Gasly substituting. Two technical disqualifications cost him further points, and di Grassi took the title at the final race.
The 2017–18 season proved tougher; he qualified on pole in both New York rounds — including the first wet qualifying session in Formula E history — but finished the year fourth with 125 points, his lowest championship position in the series.
The e.dams operation switched from Renault to Nissan for the 2018–19 season. Oliver Rowland replaced the originally planned Alexander Albon, who departed for Toro Rosso. That season Buemi battled a succession of technical failures and crashes before finishing second in the championship after recovering from 13th in the final standings. He finished fourth in 2019–20 and was retained for 2020–21. The 2021–22 season yielded no podiums, with a best result of fifth in New York, leaving him fifteenth in the standings.
In October 2022 Buemi announced he would join Envision Racing, partnering Nick Cassidy under a two-year deal. During the 2022–23 season he took his first pole position since the 2019 New York ePrix weekend in Diriyah and finished third at Hyderabad before a post-race demotion for an overpower infringement. He remained at Envision for 2023–24 with Robin Frijns as teammate, then continued for 2024–25. In August 2025 he signed a further multi-year deal with Envision covering the 2025–26 season.
In 2013, Buemi and Johnny Herbert mentored six contestants in a primetime ITV4 reality series aimed at taking Gran Turismo players to the Dubai 24 Hour race as real drivers. He married Jennifer in 2015 and they have three sons together.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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