Buemi compares FE to F1 in Monaco

The Monaco Grand Prix is among the most famous motor races in the world, but a few weeks beforehand, a different kind of open-wheel event takes place on the streets of the principality: the Monaco E-Prix.

Originally a biennial event on a shortened track, it’s now an every-year occurrence that utilizes the full grand prix layout, and like in Formula 1, it’s become the one event every driver looks to.

But is it merely a series racing on the same track as another? Sebastien Buemi not only has taken part in every Monaco E-Prix, but three grands prix there too, making him well-placed to offer an insight into how the two compare.

Like any other F1 weekend, Monaco has two practice sessions on Friday (Thursday in years past), another on Saturday before qualifying, then the race. Formula E condenses much of a typical weekend schedule into a single day, however, presenting an intense challenge anywhere, but one that’s amplified on the tight streets of Monaco.

“The layout is the same, of course, but the weekend program is very different,” Buemi tells RACER. “In Formula 1 you have a nice, long build-up with, the Thursday practice, the Friday off where you look at the data. On Saturday you qualify, and then the race on Sunday.

“ you’ve been here since Tuesday or Wednesday, but you’re first going to drive at 7:30am on Saturday. And then Saturday afternoon, usually the weekend is over.

“You have to keep in mind that the laps you do are very important also, because the sessions are just 30 minutes for practice. We went up to 40 this year, but here it’s back to 30, and you don’t have much time in between the sessions, so you cannot afford to have any sort of issue, whether it’s an accident or reliability issue. Anything you will have, you will pay a big price on how the weekend develops for you.

“In F1 you have plenty of time. Even if you were to have an accident in FP2 or a reliability issue, you have FP3, you have qualifying to drive the track.”

Of course, Monaco’s place on the Formula 1 calendar is assured because of its rich history, even if the races these days tend to offer little in the way of overtaking and action. The Formula E races, on the other hand, show what the track is still capable of, with there being 116 and 197 overtakes in the last two FE races there.

“There are a few features in Formula E that makes it a lot easier, even so it’s not easy here,” Buemi says. “One feature is obviously the amount you need to save, which makes you very vulnerable when you enter a corner, because you have to lift before. So you can get overtaken.

“And the Attack Mode in four-wheel drive, it’s not only extra power, it’s also extra acceleration, really, from the beginning of the corner.

“So those two things – we can call it artificial or not but they do create opportunities to pass, whereas in F1 you have the DRS on the main straight, but it’s the worst straight to have the DRS because it’s a corner. And by the time the effect of the DRS comes into play, it’s already halfway down the straight. The guy goes on the inside and it’s impossible to pass.”

This year’s Monaco E-Prix is different to previous editions in that it’s a doubleheader, with two full championship rounds taking place across Saturday and Sunday. For fans, it’s a good thing: extra racing on one of the most famous tracks in the world. But for drivers, the move hasn’t gone down well, with most lamenting that it takes away the chance to be “the” Monaco winner.

“I hate it,” Buemi says on the topic, without hesitation “I do understand it. I sometimes feel like, OK, if I had a bad first day, I’m happy to have a second day. But that’s really selfish. I also understand when you travel to Jakarta, Mexico, to have a single-header, to get all those people around the world when you could do two, why not two? But I absolutely don’t like it in Monaco, because I feel like it devalues the race. It devalues the weekend.

“I would have accepted more doubleheaders, but if there is one where I would say it shouldn’t be a doubleheader, it’s really Monaco.”

Buemi knows all too well about the prestige of Monaco. Not only has he raced there several times, but he was previously a resident of the country. But he says his time walking the streets doesn’t really compare to his racing laps around them.

“When you are not racing, it’s so crowded, it’s even difficult to actually see the track — there are cars everywhere,” he says. “It’s so different from being on the racetrack that it’s quite difficult to actually compare. But of course, you see some braking marks and you think about stuff you did well or bad. You look at the track and you have a few flashbacks, but you move on quickly to the next race.”

So as someone who has experienced two very different kinds of top-level races around Monaco, which does he prefer? The answer isn’t straightforward.

“As a driver, the fastest car is always the one you tend to enjoy the most because you love the speed,” he says. “And F1 has so much grip, you could argue that’s maybe slightly better on that aspect. But the racing is also very important, and racing in Formula E, knowing you have an opportunity to pass, we have an opportunity to fight with the other guys, it’s actually nicer.

“It’s a hard question to answer. If you start at the front in Formula E, you wish that it was more like F1 because most of the job is then done. If you start at the back in F1, you wish it’s more like Formula E because you’d love to have overtaking possibilities.

“It’s a bit difficult to say. I guess it’s a bit of both. You like the speed of F1 but you love the racing of Formula E and the unpredictability that Formula E will provide versus the status quo of Formula 1.”