Buemi will skip WEC Prologue for Mexico

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Sebastien Buemi will not be in attendance at the World Endurance Championship Prologue held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy following permission from Toyota to participate in the Mexico City ePrix.

The reigning champion, who is currently leading this season’s standings in the all-electric series, is primarily contracted to Toyota in the endurance series but will be allowed to fly to Mexico for the ePrix.

Buemi will still be required to attend Toyota’s LMP1 launch on the Friday, meaning that he will not arrive in Mexico until Saturday morning, the day of the event.

Speaking to Autosport, the Swiss driver explained the situation and how Toyota allowed him to continue his championship challenge in Formula E.

“Toyota don’t want to block me if there is a solution – it’s a normal test day and not a must to be there,” said Buemi.

“It’s not easy because I’m going to land at 4am on Saturday morning, but I have the opportunity to do the race and maybe not lose the championship.”

“I’m not going to find excuses if it doesn’t go well. In Argentina and Mexico last year I arrived last minute and I was on the podium, it’s not impossible.”

This isn’t the only potential clash for Buemi, who is due to miss both New York ePrix due to his prior commitments at the 6h Nurburgring.

“I know at the moment the FIA is pushing very hard to make no clash in New York and I would expect the FIA to find a solution.

“In all honesty I struggle to understand how we can’t find a way to avoid clashes – it’s a total of 20 weekends we have to fit in 48 or 49 weeks.

“If they don’t, hopefully if I concentrate maybe by the time I get to New York we can have the opportunity to fight for the title still.”

The clash is also likely to affect a number of other Formula E drivers, with Sam Bird and Nicolas Prost plus others also contracted to their respective WEC teams.

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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