diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7d62f1a858..de444c578d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -122,3 +122,5 @@ examples/models/onnx_resnet50/resnet.onnx
 #openapi
 engine/src/main/resources/static/seldon.json
 api-frontend/src/main/resources/static/seldon.json
+wrappers/python/seldon.json
+
diff --git a/wrappers/python/microservice.py b/wrappers/python/microservice.py
index 8f90c7aea8..17b3e3d660 100644
--- a/wrappers/python/microservice.py
+++ b/wrappers/python/microservice.py
@@ -112,7 +112,13 @@ def array_to_rest_datadef(array,names,original_datadef):
 def grpc_datadef_to_array(datadef):
     data_type = datadef.WhichOneof("data_oneof")
     if data_type == "tensor":
-        features = np.array(datadef.tensor.values).reshape(datadef.tensor.shape)
+        sz = np.prod(datadef.tensor.shape) # get number of float64 entries
+        c = datadef.tensor.SerializeToString() # get bytes
+        # create array from packed entries which are at end of bytes - assumes same endianness
+        features =  np.frombuffer(memoryview(c[-(sz*8):]), dtype=np.float64, count=sz, offset=0)
+        features = features.reshape(datadef.tensor.shape)
+        # Previous method which is slower
+        # features = np.array(datadef.tensor.values).reshape(datadef.tensor.shape)
     elif data_type == "ndarray":
         features = np.array(datadef.ndarray)
     else: