Red Bull confirm Sébastien Buemi as reserve driver

Red Bull have confirmed that Swiss driver Sébastien Buemi will be continuing on in the ninth season as the squad's reserve driver. Buemi is currently one of the world's most successful drivers, having won the World Endurance Championships as well as the Formula E title, apart from his testing duties with the Milton Keynes based side.

A product of the Red Bull Junior Team, Buemi's first stint as a Red Bull test driver came in 2008, which immediately led to an Formula 1 drive with the sister team of Scuderia Toro Rosso partnering his namesake Sébastien Bourdais. He drove for three seasons and in 2012 was on the senior team's books as a test and reserve driver.

Since he wasn't driving an F1 car for the full season anymore, he used his time to branch out and try his skills in different racing categories. This resulted in his 2014 WEC title with Toyota Gazoo Racing, a feat that he repeated with them in 2018.

He also won the Le Mans 24 hours with Kuzuki Nakajima of Japan and Fernando Alonso as his two team-mates last year.

Apart from endurance racing, Buemi has been a regular race winner in Formula E too, finishing runner-up twice - in 2014-15 and 2016-17. He won the title in a memorable season finale in 2015-16 in London and only lost out to Lucas Di Grassi the next season owing to his commitments in WEC.

Now into his fifth season, he will be racing with Nissan-Renault to try and become the first double Formula E champion.

Buemi will be testing a Honda powered car after having raced with Ferrari engines for Toro Rosso for three years. He has spent five years with the Renault Formula E team, and considering he is currently in his seventh year of competing with Toyota in WEC, that makes him one of the most versatile drivers to test for a Formula 1 team.