A tough road for the three-time champions

After last season saw their star driver almost win the title despite missing two races and having a nightmare at the final round, Renault e.dams had every right to be optimistic about fighting for the title this season.

After all, they had been at the at the sharp end of the Formula E field, fighting for race wins since the very beginning of the series.

This season was to be a bit different for them in Renault’s final season as a manufacturer before the arrival of Nissan for Season 5. The driver lineup was the same as it had been in the previous three seasons, with Sébastien Buemi hoping for no clashes with his WEC commitments with Toyota and Nico Prost hoping to be more competitive than he was last season.

Renault e.dams’ 2017-18 ABB FIA Formula E Statistics:

Wins: 0

Podiums: 4 (1 x 2nd and 3 x 3rd finishes, all Buemi)

Fastest Laps: 0

Championship Points: 133

Constructors’ Championship: 5th

In what was a somewhat underwhelming season for Renault, the fact they didn’t manage to win a race but Techeetah did using the same hardware was a bit of a surprise.

Having said this, Buemi was on course for a win in Marrakesh before an issue with his fanboost meant that struggled to contain Felix Rosenqvist’s Mahindra. It was still the best result for the Season 2 champion though.

The worst weekend for the team was easily Punta del Este in what was the only round where neither Buemi or Prost scored points. Buemi even made a rare mistake when he glanced a wall on lap 11, breaking the suspension and then retiring when his second car ran out of energy later on in the race. Prost had been struggling for pace during the weekend and finished fifteenth.

Sébastien Buemi

Wins: 0

Podiums: 4 (1 x 2nd, 3 x 3rd place finishes)

Drivers’ Championship: 4th (125 points)

Going into this season, Sébastien Buemi was going to be the driver doing most of the lifting in terms of points scoring for the team and coming off the back of the previous season, he was a driver to watch. He was also one of a small group of drivers to have won at least one race in each season so far.

To everyone’s surprise, Buemi failed to win a race all season.

He did come close in Marrakesh but a fanboost issue meant that Felix Rosenqvist was able to make his way past and claim the win.

The momentum from the Marrakesh weekend did lead to a pair of third-place finishes at Santiago and Mexico City before a retirement in Punta Del Este and then a run of points finishes between Mexico City and his, and Renault’s, final podium of the season on Saturday in New York.

Nicolas Prost

Wins: 0

Podiums: 0

Best Finish: 8th (Hong Kong Race 2)

Drivers’ Championship: 19th (8 points)

Nico Prost was, for the most part, a shadow of the driver we saw in the first two seasons of Formula E. Remember: he almost won the first ever round in Beijing but collided with Nick Heidfeld.

He had struggled in Season 3 as the car seemed to be developed more to his teammate’s liking, and it was a similar story this season.

He did make the Super Pole session on the Saturday in New York – the penultimate race of the season – and ended up starting third, just two places behind his teammate (who started on pole) before getting his first point since Santiago all the way back in February with a 10th place finish.

Hong Kong was another strong point with 6 points being scored from both races which saw the Frenchman sitting above eventual championship runner-up, Lucas di Grassi, in the standings at that point.

However, the rest of the season was mostly spent fighting it out in the lower end of the midfield.