Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi has suffered a high-speed crash this past Wednesday at the Silverstone Circuit as he was performing some tests for Pirelli on board an F1 Red Bull.

The accident took place during the second and last day of tests which are organised by the Italian firm as part of their compound development program for the Formula 1 World Championship of 2020.

A crash at 270 km/h and with a strength of 20 Gs

At 5:00 pm Sebastien Buemi took the relay at the wheel of the RB15 from official Red Bull driver, the Frenchman Pierre Gasly. After a few uneventful kilometres, and as he was trying out some new tyres for 2020, he lost control of the car at the Abbey corner. He was going at an approximate speed of 270 km/h when he crashed violently against the barriers.

The red flag was raised immediately on the track and the testing session was cancelled as emergency services proceeded to rescue the driver and take him to the medical post, as determined by the FIA protocol. The impact suffered by the Red Bull reserve driver reached a strength of 20G (the weight of his head and helmet times 20). Luckily the medical tests performed on the driver have ruled out any injury.

Pirelli and Red Bull are investigating the accident

According to the initial investigation, the fault would have been located on the rear of the single-seater, more specifically on the rear left tyre, which sent Sebastien Buemi against the crash barriers. The Swiss driver was unable to react and avoid the crash in any way, becoming a mere passenger inside the blue bullet.

In any case, both the team from Milton Keynes and the Italian tyre manufacturer are already investigating the possible causes of the accident.  As mentioned earlier, the crash took place on Wednesday during the final day of Pirelli testing at Silverstone.

Sebastien Buemi had shared the track in the morning with Williams driver Robert Kubica and both had completed a total of 156 laps on the English track for the official F1 tyre provider.

A day earlier, George Russell from the Grove team, had driven for a total of 98 laps and his Red Bull college Pierre Gasly had completed 102 laps of the British racetrack. Neither of them had reported any incident while using the experimental compounds for 2020. 

There are four more Pirelli testing sessions scheduled during the calendar season. Two of them are to take place at the Paul Ricard track in France, one in Suzuka (Japan) and the last one at the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico. By the way, McLaren is expected to take part in the French appointment with the new tyres.

Sebastien Buemi’s brilliant career

Sebastien Buemi has competed in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso between 2009 and 2011. He has taken part in a total of 55 Grand Prix and his best results have been two seventh positions in Australia and Brazil in 2009.

Between 2012 and 2014 he became a reserve driver for Red Bull. Later on, and away from the F1, he has been very successful in other motorsport disciplines. He won the Formula E World Championship in the 2015-2016 season.

He has also conquered the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2014 and in the 2018-2019 Super Season next to Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima within the Toyota Gazoo Racing team.  To date, he continues taking part in Formula E with the Nissan E-DAMS team, with which he came in second in the 2018-2019 season.

Imágenes: Red Bull & Williams F1.