Sébastien Bourdais
Early years
Born into a racing family (his father Patrick raced in touring cars, hill climbs, and sports cars), Bourdais began his racing career at age 10 in go-karts. During the early 1990s, he competed in a variety of karting championships, winning the Maine Bretagne League in 1991 and the Cadet France championship in 1993.
In 1995, he moved up to open-wheel racing, finishing 9th in the Formula Campus Championship. Then, he spent two years in the French Formula Renault series, ultimately finishing 2nd in points in 1997 after winning four races and five pole positions. In 1998, he won five races to become Rookie of the Year (6th overall) in French Formula 3. He won the series outright in 1999, with eight wins and three poles. That year, he also competed in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 911 - he still makes occasional sports car appearances at Le Mans and in the Grand Am series.
Following his success in the lower-formulae, Bourdais joined the Prost Junior Team in the International F3000 championship. Although he finished 9th in the championship with only one pole and a second place finish, Bourdais had better luck at Le Mans, finishing 4th in the endurance classic.
In 2001, Bourdais went back to his winning ways in F3000, with a victory at Silverstone with the DAMS team. He changed teams again for 2002, taking his Super Nova car to three victories and seven pole positions to win the series championship after Tomas Enge was penalized for failing a drug test.
Champ Car
Following the footsteps of recent F3000 graduates such as Juan Montoya and Bruno Junqueira, Bourdais moved to Champ Car racing and joined Newman/Haas Racing for the 2003 season. At St. Petersburg, Bourdais became the first rookie since Nigel Mansell to claim pole position for his very first race. However, he would not finish higher than 11th until his fourth race, when he led 95 laps en route to his first Champ Car victory at Brands Hatch. He followed this up with another victory at Lausitzring. By the end of the season, he would earn five more podium finishes, including a win from pole at Cleveland. With a runner-up finish in Mexico City, he clinched the Rookie of the Year title and finished 4th in the overall standings.
Staying with Newman/Haas for 2004, Bourdais dominated the Champ Car series with seven wins and eight poles in his McDonald's-sponsored Lola, beating his own teammate Bruno Junqueira by 28 points. His outstanding record also included podium finishes in 10 out of 14 events and qualifying results no lower than 3rd all season.
Bourdais successfully defended his Champ Car title in 2005 with a late-season charge of five wins in six races after a lackluster start to the season. In addition to Champ Car, he also competed in the International Race of Champions, winning his first stock car race at Texas Motor Speedway. That May, he would also finish 12th in his first Indianapolis 500.
Staying with the Newman/Haas team, Bourdais is seeking his third consecutive Champ Car title in 2006. He started the season with four consecutive victories at Long Beach, Houston, Monterrey, and Milwaukee. His winning streak was ended by the emergence of A. J. Allmendinger, who won three races in a row heading into summer. Bourdais responded with a commanding victory from pole at San Jose, and is still leading the Champ Car points standings. However, an incident caused by his arch-rival Paul Tracy that knocked him out on the final lap of the following race in Denver and a subsequent win by Allemendiger narrowed the gap between the two and the race may become more tighter until the end of the season. However, Bourdais's win in Montreal and Allemendinger's DNF had widen his points lead to 62 points with three races left, making it nearly impossible to lose, since there are points awarded to every position. If Bourdais can hold on to this lead, he will be the first Champ Car driver to win three consecutive titles since Ted Horn achieved the hat trick in 1948.
It has been rumoured recently that Bourdais could drive for the BMW Sauber team as a testing role in the 2007 Formula One Season.
Trivia
- Bourdais currently resides in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife Claire.
- He is one of the few top-level athletes to wear eyeglasses while competing.
- It is rumored that Bourdais arrived early at his first test with the team, and no one on the team immediately recognized him. He was busy helping laborers assemble a steel scaffolding assembly for the team when team principal Carl Haas arrived and recognized him.
External links
Complete Champ Car results
| 250px | |
| Sébastien Bourdais | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | French |
| Car number | 1 |
| Team | Newman/Haas Racing |
| Races | 56 |
| Championships | 2 (2004-2005) |
| Wins | 22 |
| Podiums | 33 |
| Poles | 23 |
| First race | 2003 Grand Prix of Long Beach |
| First win | 2003 London Champ Car Trophy (Brands Hatch) |
| Yr | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Newman/Haas | STP 11 |
MTY Ret |
LBH Ret |
BRH 1 |
LAU 1 |
MIL 9 |
LAG Ret |
POR Ret |
CLE 1 |
TOR 4 |
VAN 3 |
ROA 2 |
MID 5 |
MTL Ret |
DEN 2 |
MIA Ret |
MEX 2 |
SUR Ret |
4th | 159 |
| 2004 | Newman/Haas | LBH 3 |
MTY 1 |
MIL Ret |
POR 1 |
CLE 1 |
TOR 1 |
VAN 5 |
ROA 3 |
DEN 1 |
MTL Ret |
LAG 8 |
LAS 1 |
SUR 2 |
MEX 1 |
1st | 369 | ||||
| 2005 | Newman/Haas | LBH 1 |
MTY 5 |
MIL 6 |
POR 2 |
CLE 5 |
TOR 5 |
EDM 1 |
SAN 1 |
DEN 1 |
MTL 4 |
LAS 1 |
SUR 1 |
MEX Ret |
1st | 348 | |||||
| 2006 | Newman/Haas | LBH 1 |
HST 1 |
MTY 1 |
MIL 1 |
POR 3 |
CLE Ret |
TOR 3 |
EDM 2 |
SAN 1 |
DEN 7 |
MTL 1 |
ROA |
SUR |
MEX |
1st* | 310* |
* Denotes present season standing