Bertrand Baguette

Bertrand Baguette
Baguette in May 2010.
Nationality	Belgian
Born	23 February 1986 (1986-02-23)
2012 IndyCar Series
Debut season	2010
Current team	Conquest Racing
Car no.	34
Starts	15
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	22nd in 2010
Previous series
2008 2008 2008 2007–09 2005–06 2005–06 2004	FIA GT Championship Superleague Formula Belgian Touring Cars S1 Formula Renault 3.5 Series Formula Renault Eurocup French Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 1.6 Belgium
Championship titles
2009	Formula Renault 3.5 Series

Bertrand Baguette (born 23 February 1986) is a Belgian racing driver from Thimister-Clermont. Since 2000, he has competed in various motorsport formulae.

Career

Karting

Aged 14, Baguette began karting in his inter-provincial championship, driving "Blue" class karts, in which he finished fifth. He then moved up to Junior level for 2001, competing again in the inter-provincial championship but also competed in the national championship for the first time. He finished third in the provincial level championship, but was four places lower in the national. Baguette competed in four different Intercontinental A class championships in 2002, with a runner-up position at provincial level, despite competing in only certain events, due to prior higher-ranked commitments in the Belgian, French or European championships. He then completed a fourth year of karting, winning the Belgian Championship and again finished runner-up in a partial campaign in the provincial championship. He also won a scholarship to give him a drive in 1600cc Formula Renault Belgium.

Formula Renault

Baguette moved into 1600cc Formula Renault cars and into the Belgian series, as part of his scholarship win. He finished a strong third in the championship, amassing three wins and four poles during the season. He finished well behind the Boutsen Racing duo of Pieter Belmans and champion Maxime Soulet. Baguette moved to the Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0 for 2005, with a campaign in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 also, for Epsilon Euskadi. He finished eleventh in the French championship, including a second place at Pau. He ranked four places higher in the pan-European championship, including a fastest lap at the Bugatti Circuit. He continued in both series in 2006, and again ranked higher in the European championship. He finished fourth with five podiums including a win at Le Mans, finishing just 11 points behind championship winner Filipe Albuquerque. He finished in a lowly eighth in the French championship, again for Epsilon Euskadi.

In 2007, Baguette moved up 1500cc to the 3.5-litre Formula Renault 3.5 Series with the eponymous Kurt Mollekens-run KTR team, in which he took two podium finishes. He continued in the category in 2008, driving for the Italian team Draco. After finishing seventh in the championship, including a win at Spa, Baguette continued with Draco for the 2009 season.

A steady start, with four podiums left Baguette tied on points with Marcos Martínez before the Silverstone meeting. Seven top-fives in eight races, including three wins left Baguette with an unassailable 34-point championship lead with a round to go. Despite the pressure being off, Baguette won both races at the Ciudad del Motor de Aragón, thus winning the championship by 57 points from Fairuz Fauzy.

As a prize for his championship win, he was given the opportunity to test a Renault R29 Formula One car at Jerez on December 1, 2009 and a BMW Sauber F1.09 car on December 3.

IndyCar Series

On 22 March 2010, Conquest Racing announced that Baguette would drive their second car in the IndyCar Series, starting with the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on 11 April.

Baguette qualified 24th for the 2010 Indianapolis 500 and finished 22nd after losing several laps in the pits to replace a rear-view mirror that had fallen off. His season-best finish was 10th at Kentucky, after qualifying 6th. Baguette passed Danica Patrick in lap 189 and took the lead of the 2011 Indianapolis 500 but had to pit three laps before the end of the race and finished 7th, his best finish of his career.

Formula One

Baguette tested for Renault F1 at Jerez on December 1 2009 and for BMW Sauber two days later. Baguette was favourite to become Robert Kubica's team mate at Renault after many favourites such as Timo Glock, Heikki Kovalainen, Romain Grosjean, Takuma Sato, Nick Heidfeld, Christian Klien and Jacques Villeneuve dropped out but the seat was eventually filled by Vitaly Petrov.

Baguette behind the wheel

• 

  Baguette in the cockpit of a Formula Renault 3.5 Series car, 2007.

• 

  Baguette driving for KTR at the Donington Park round of the 2007 Formula Renault 3.5 Series season.

• 

  Baguette driving for Draco Racing at the Silverstone round of the 2008 Formula Renault 3.5 Series season.

Racing record

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	DC	Points
2007	KTR	MOZ 1 18	MOZ 2 Ret	NÜR 1 11	NÜR 2 Ret	MON 1 12	HUN 1 Ret	HUN 2 17	SPA 1 5	SPA 2 Ret	DON 1 3	DON 2 Ret	MAG 1 Ret	MAG 2 13	EST 1 20	EST 2 Ret	CAT 1 8	CAT 2 2	17th	34
2008	Draco Racing	MOZ 1 Ret	MOZ 2 Ret	SPA 1 1	SPA 2 11	MON 1 5	SIL 1 6	SIL 2 16	HUN 1 4	HUN 2 4	NÜR 1 5	NÜR 2 5	BUG 1 Ret	BUG 2 16	EST 1 Ret	EST 2 4	CAT 1 Ret	CAT 2 4	7th	69
2009	Draco Racing	CAT 1 2	CAT 2 Ret	SPA 1 2	SPA 2 2	MON 1 5	HUN 1 3	HUN 2 6	SIL 1 8	SIL 2 5	BUG 1 1	BUG 2 1	ALG 1 2	ALG 2 5	NÜR 1 1	NÜR 2 5	ALC 1 1	ALC 2 1	1st	155

Superleague Formula

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Operator	1		2		3		4		5		6		Position	Points
2008	Al Ain	Azerti Motorsport	DON		NÜR		ZOL		EST		VAL		JER		12th	244
							11	10					10	7

American open–wheel racing results

(key)

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Rank	Points
2010	Conquest Racing	SAO	STP	ALA 20	LBH 24	KAN 20	INDY 22	TXS 22	IOW 17	WGL 18	TOR 16	EDM 14	MDO 11	SNM 23	CHI 12	KTY 10	MOT 25	HMS 15		22nd	213
2011	RLL Racing	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY 7	TXS1	TXS2	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	NWH	SNM	BAL	MOT	KTY	LVS	35th*	30*

* Season in progress.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (Non-win)	Top 10s (Non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships
2	2	16	0	0	0	2	0	0

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2010	Dallara	Honda	24	22	Conquest Racing
2011	Dallara	Honda	14	7	RLL Racing

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2011	Marc VDS Racing Team	Ford	ABU QR	ABU CR	ZOL QR	ZOL CR	ALG QR	ALG CR	SAC QR	SAC CR	SIL QR	SIL CR	NAV QR 3	NAV CR 4	PRI QR	PRI CR	ORD QR	ORD CR	BEI QR Ret	BEI CR 4	SAN QR	SAN CR	17th	28

External links

• Official website
• IndyCar Driver Page
• Official fanclub
• Interview with Baguette for IndyCar

Sporting positions
Preceded by Giedo van der Garde	Formula Renault 3.5 Series Champion 2009	Succeeded by Mikhail Aleshin