Sébastien Bourdais

Sébastien Bourdais ( born February 28, 1979 in Le Mans ) is a French racing driver.

It was in 1999 French Formula 3 and Formula 3000 champion in 2002. Between 2003 and 2007 he was active in the North American Champ Car series, where he won four championships in a row and became the most successful driver in this series. For the 2008 season Bourdais moved to Formula 1, where he played a total of 27 Grand Prix until mid-2009. Since 2011 he takes in the IndyCar Series. 2014 he drives for KVSH Racing. In addition, Bourdais takes part in long-distance races.

• 3.1 Career stations
• 3.2 Statistics in Formula 1 3.2.1 Individual Results

Career

Beginnings in motorsport (1991-2002)

Bourdais began his motorsport career in 1991 in karting. He won the Maine Brittany Kart Championship in the first year. In 1995 he moved to Formula racing and was ninth in the French Formula Renault Campus. In 1996 he moved to the French Formula Renault and was seventh overall. He also won the 24 - hour kart race at Le Mans. The following year he won the French Formula Renault in four runs and stood in eighteen races eleven times on the podium. He won the runner-up title behind his teammate Jonathan Cochet. He also competed in the European Formula Renault, where he finished the season in tenth place overall. In 1998 he moved to the French Formula 3 Championship. He scored a podium placement and finished sixth overall and Rookie of the Year. A year later, he won three pole positions, fastest laps four and eight race wins the French Formula 3 championship before Cochet. In the same year he took part in the first 24 - hour race at Le Mans.

From 2000, he drove in the International Formula 3000 Championship for the Prost Junior Team Gauloises Formula as team-mate André Couto. He reached the pole position at Magny -Cours and finished second in this race. In the overall standings Bourdais finished the season ranked ninth and sat down opposite Couto, who was 18, by. Also at the 24 - hour race in Le Mans he took part again. In his second year in Formula 3000 he drove for the DAMS team. He won the race in Silverstone, Hockenheim and Budapest came to the podium and stood in Spielberg on the pole position. In the final account, he was fourth, while his teammate Derek Hill scored points in any race. At the 24 - hour race at Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring race, he came in the top 15 to the finish. In 2002 he moved to Supernova Racing and won with victories at Imola, Monaco and on the Nürburgring and six pole positions Formula 3000 Championship. He was a total of eight times on the podium three times and drove the fastest lap. Bourdais benefited from the fact that his rival Tomáš Enge had been revoked because of a positive doping tests, a victory. At the 24 -hour race in Spa- Francorchamps, he was involved in the victory of the team Labre. He also appeared again at the 24- hour race at Le Mans. 2001 and 2002 took Bourdais also participated in several races of the FIA Sportscar Championship.

Champ Cars (2003-2007)

After he had received no ordinary cockpit despite repeated efforts in Formula 1, Bourdais went in 2003 to the American Champ Car series for Newman / Haas Racing, where he was team-mate Bruno Junqueira. At the very first race in St. Petersburg, he was on pole position, as well as the second race in Monterrey. This was since Nigel Mansell get in with the Champ Cars in 1993, the first time that a freshman in the first two races was on the first start position. During the season he won at Brands Hatch on the Euro Speedway Lausitz and the floodlit race in Cleveland. At the end of the season he was Rookie of the Year and had the best qualifying result of all participants. He finished fourth in the standings and had to team internally Junqueira, who was runner-up, defeated.

2004 remained Bourdais at Newman / Haas Racing. Although he won seven out of fourteen races, eight times started from pole position and ten times stood on the podium, he dueled until the final race with Junqueira for the title. Bourdais sat down with 369 to 341 points against his team-mate through and won the Champ Car championship. Bourdais 2005 defended the championship with six wins. He had 348 to 288 points, a significant lead over the runner-up Oriol Servia, who was his teammate in the third race weekend. Junqueira, who actually reunited with Bourdais that should constitute Newman / Haas driver duo, was injured during the IndyCar Series Indianapolis 500 counted so hard that it turned out for the rest of the season. Also Bourdais took part in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and debuted in the IndyCar Series. In addition, he won a run of the International Race of Champions at Texas Motor Speedway and went on to individual sports car racing.

The Champ Car season 2006 started for Bourdais with four wins from the first four races. In the rest of the season was followed by three more wins and he decided the championship with 387 points to 298 against Justin Wilson once again dominant for themselves. Team Intern he let Junqueira, who had returned to the cockpit, far behind. With his third Champ Car title in a row wrote Bourdais American motorsports history, as this was previously only one driver ( Ted Horn, AAA National Champion 1946-1948 ) succeeded. He also won once this season the GT2 in the American Le Mans Series ( ALMS). In 2007, Bourdais with Graham Rahal a new teammates. He won eight Champ Car races and won for the fourth time in a row the championship. Bourdais became the first Champ Car drivers, to have managed this. Since the Champ Car Series was held for the last time in 2007, Bourdais is also the last Champ Car champion. Like last year, he sat down against Wilson, who was runner-up, by a wide margin. In addition, Bourdais took part in a 2007 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP at the 24-hour race at Le Mans and was together with Pedro Lamy and Stéphane Sarrazin second in the final rankings.

Formula 1 (2008-2009)

The Formula 1 winter testing in December 2006 got Bourdais opportunity to test for the Formula 1 team Toro Rosso. He repeated the tests over the course of the 2007 season and finally got a contract for 2008 offered. There he went to the side of Sebastian Vettel for the Italian team at the start. In his debut race, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, he reached despite an engine failure two laps to go still in seventh place after Rubens Barrichello was disqualified. In the course of the race, Bourdais had been working up to fourth before stopped him of the defect. In the rest of the season it Bourdais but succeeded only at the Grand Prix of Belgium, to achieve more points than seventh. His achievements were made ​​clear by his teammates in the shade. While Vettel was with a win and 35 points eighth in the drivers' world championship, Bourdais finished the season with four points in 17th place. Toro Rosso initially allowed then the option to extend the contract expire and explored other possibilities.

In February 2009, Bourdais Toro Rosso finally extended contract for one season. After he vorwies just two points after the ninth race and it had not been able to leave his younger team mate Sébastien Buemi behind, Toro Rosso finished working with Bourdais after the Grand Prix of Germany. According to the team boss Franz Tost he had " not met expectations," the. Bourdais was replaced by the former test driver Jaime Alguersuari. In the world championship Bourdais was in this season 19th parallel to its Formula 1 involvement, he joined again in 2009 for Peugeot to the 24- hour race at Le Mans and finished the race in second place again. This season he made with Franck Montagny and Sarrazin a team. He also competed for Peugeot at a race in the American Le Mans Series ( ALMS).

Superleague Formula (2009-2010)

After his release at Toro Rosso Bourdais moved to the Superleague Formula. For the team of Sevilla FC, ​​which was supervised by Ultimate Motorsport and Reid Motorsport, he took part in the three race weekends of the second half of the season. He won a race and was a total of four times on the podium. He was also twice Weekend Winner. Bourdais 2010 remained first in the Superleague Formula and moved to managed by LRS Formula team of Olympique Lyon. On the first weekend Bourdais won a race. Other podium placings, however, did not follow, and he left the series after the fifth race weekend. He also took part in a race ever ALMS and the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race in the Le Mans Series in Spa -Francorchamps he won.

IndyCar Series ( since 2011 )

Bourdais returned to North America in 2011 and received a cockpit with Dale Coyne Racing in the IndyCar Series. He went on to all non - oval races. His season did not start well. After he did not start in the first race after an accident in the warm up, he was parted in the next three races twice. In the second phase on the road courses Bourdais returned with five top - 10 finishes in six races. In Toronto, he showed some overtaking and finally came in sixth place finish. A race later in Edmonton Bourdais scored again in sixth place. In addition, he set the fastest lap of the race. At the end of the season he was on the 23rd overall. Bourdais had just one point less than his teammate James Jakes, who had completed the entire season achieved. In addition, Bourdais was in the Peugeot 908 active in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup ( ILMC ) and participated in six out of seven races in the LMP1 class part. When the ILMC scoring 24 - hour race in Le Mans he came for the third time on the second place finish. At Imola and Zhuhai Bourdais won the race along with Anthony Davidson and at Silverstone with Simon Pagenaud. Along with Davidson he was the pilot with the most victories. In addition, Bourdais took part in two races of the V8 Supercar Championship Series and won one of them.

2012 should Bourdais originally deny the entire IndyCar Series season for Dragon Racing. His teammate was Katherine Legge. Lotus, the engine supplier of the team at the start of the season, had at the beginning of the season behind the other two engine manufacturers. In the second race in Birmingham Bourdais placed ninth after a good race. It was the only top- 10 ranking by Lotus. After the fourth race Dragon switched to Chevrolet. However, since they did not have enough motors, Dragon reduced his team for the sixth race on a vehicle. Bourdais was chosen as a pilot for the road courses, Legge received at the remaining four oval racing cockpit. When Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, he scored his best season with a fourth place ranking. He finished the season in 25th place. In addition, Bourdais took part in two races of the FIA World Endurance Championship 2012. He was 86th in the Drivers' World Championship. In addition, Bourdais denied in the North American Rolex Sports Car Series race for three Starworks Motorsport. He was at every race on the podium and won the race in Indianapolis along with Alex Popov. In the DP rating, he reached the 17th place. 2013 remained Bourdais at Dragon Racing in the IndyCar Series. After he had not come in the first eleven races in the top 10, he scored in Toronto in both races a podium placement. At the first race he started for the first time in the IndyCar Series from the front row and ran in second place for the first time on the podium. In the second race he finished third. In the last six races, he came four times in the top 10. At the Grand Prix of Baltimore Bourdais managed it from the 22nd place starting with the third place a further podium placement. He finished the season off in twelfth place and sat down with 370 to 236 points clearly against his teammate Sebastian Saavedra by. In addition, he played for several teams a total of seven endurance races in the Rolex Sports Car Series.

2014 goes Bourdais for KVSH Racing in the IndyCar Series at the start. He received a two-year contract.

Personal

Sébastien Bourdais is married and has a daughter (Emma ).

Statistics

Career stations

• 2004: Champ Car (Master)
• 2005: Champ Car (Master)
• 2005: IndyCar Series ( No. 28 )
• 2005: ALMS GTS
• 2005: Rolex Sports Car Series, DP ( No. 89 )
• 2006: Champ Car (Master)
• 2006: ALMS, GT2 ( 14th)
• 2007: Champ Car (Master)
• 2008: Formula 1 ( 17th)
• 2009: Formula 1 ( 19th place )
• 2009: ALMS, LMP1 ( 14th)
• 2009: Superleague Formula
• 2010: Superleague Formula
• 2010: Le Mans Series, LMP1 ( 14th)

• 2010: ALMS
• 2010: Rolex Sports Car Series, DP ( No. 69 )
• 2011: IndyCar Series ( No. 23 )
• 2011: Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, LMP1
• 2011: V8 Supercar Championship Series ( No. 39 )
• 2012: IndyCar Series (No. 25)
• 2012: WEC ( 86th place )
• 2012: Rolex Sports Car Series, DP ( 17th)
• 2013: IndyCar Series (No. 12)
• 2013: Rolex Sports Car Series, DP ( 18th place)
• 2014: IndyCar Series

Statistics in Formula 1

Individual results

Le Mans results

Individual results in the Superleague Formula

Individual results in the IndyCar Series

( Legend)