Sébastien Bourdais

Sébastien Bourdais Formula One World Championship career Nationality French Entries 27 Championships 0 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Career points 6 Pole positions 0 Fastest laps 0 First entry 2008 Australian Grand Prix Last entry 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix 2008 position 17th (4 pts) 24 Hours of Le Mans career Years 1999 – 2002, 2004, 2007, 2009 Teams Larbre Compétition, Pescarolo Sport, Peugeot Best finish 2nd (2007), (2009) Class wins 0

Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (born February 28, 1979 in Le Mans) is a French race car driver. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of the Champ Car World Series, having won four successive championships from 2004 to 2007.

He currently drives in Formula One for the Toro Rosso team.

Early years

Karting

Born into a racing family (his father Patrick races in touring cars, hill climbs, and sports cars), Bourdais began his racing career at age 10 in 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. Bourdais was part of the winning Sologne Karting team which won the 1996 24 hour Le Mans kart race at the Circuit Alain Prost on a Merlin chassis with Atomic motors.

Junior formulae

Bourdais progressed to single-seater racing in 1995, finishing 9th in the Formula Campus Championship. He then spent two years in the French Formula Renault Championship, ultimately finishing second 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 F3. He won the series outright in 1999, with eight wins and three poles.

Formula 3000

Following his success in the lower formulae, Bourdais joined the Prost Junior Team in the International F3000 Championship. He finished ninth in the series with one pole and a best finish of second. In 2001, Bourdais moved to the DAMS team in Formula 3000 and took his first win in the series at Silverstone. He changed teams again for 2002, taking his Super Nova Racing car to three victories and seven pole positions. He beat Giorgio Pantano to the championship by two points after Tomáš Enge, who had scored the most points, was penalised for failing a drug test.

Champ Car career

Bourdais won his second Champ Car title in 2005.

Following in the footsteps of recent F3000 graduates such as Juan Pablo Montoya and Bruno Junqueira, Bourdais moved to Champ Car racing in the United States and joined Newman-Haas Racing for the 2003 CART World Series season. At St. Petersburg, Florida, Bourdais became the first rookie since Nigel Mansell to claim pole position for his very first race. However, he did 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 had earned 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 team mate Junqueira by 28 points. His record also included podium finishes in 10 out of 14 events and qualifying results no lower than third all season.

Bourdais winning the 2007 Grand Prix of Houston.

Bourdais successfully defended his Champ Car title in 2005 with five wins in six races towards the end of the season, again with the Newman-Haas/Lanigan team. That May, he also finished 12th in his first Indianapolis 500.

Bourdais won a third consecutive Champ Car title in 2006. His season began with four consecutive victories at Long Beach, Houston, Monterrey, and Milwaukee, although his winning streak was ended by the emergence of A. J. Allmendinger, who won three races in a row through the middle of the season. Bourdais responded with a commanding victory from pole at San Jose, leaving him leading the Champ Car points standings.

However, an incident with his arch-rival Paul Tracy that knocked him out on the final lap of the following race in Denver, and a subsequent win by Allmendinger narrowed the gap between the two. Bourdais's win in Montreal and Allmendinger's DNF had widened his points lead to 62 points with three races left, and Bourdais clinched the championship at the next race in Surfers Paradise despite a weak performance in that race. Bourdais became the first Champ Car driver to win three consecutive titles since Ted Horn achieved the hat trick in 1948.

Bourdais won a fourth consecutive Champ Car title in 2007 with victory at Lexmark Indy 300 on October 21.

Formula One career

Pre-Champ Car

In 2002, Bourdais got his first F1 test with the Arrows team and was signed on to drive for the team but the team were on the verge of bankruptcy. In December he tested for Renault at Jerez but fellow Frenchman Franck Montagny secured the test drive instead of Bourdais - rumours suggested that Bourdais did not wish to sign a management deal with Renault boss Flavio Briatore in addition to a Renault contract.

Toro Rosso

Bourdais driving for Toro Rosso at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix.

Bourdais driving for Toro Rosso at the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Bourdais returned to F1 in 2007 after being given several tests with Scuderia Toro Rosso. On August 10, 2007 it was announced that Bourdais would race for Toro Rosso in 2008, replacing Vitantonio Liuzzi and partnering Sebastian Vettel. On March 16, 2008 Bourdais competed in his first Formula One Championship race, the 2008 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. After qualifying in 17th position he took advantage of mistakes made by other drivers, in the first Formula One race since 2001 without traction control, and worked his way up to fourth. However, with three laps remaining an engine problem forced Bourdais to retire, but he was still classified 8th having completed more than 90% of the race distance. He later inherited seventh place (and two Championship points) after the disqualification of Rubens Barrichello.

Bourdais qualified ninth for the Belgian Grand Prix. During the race he quickly gained places and held on to fifth place for much of the distance, and was on course for a podium position. As the rain fell harder on the last lap he was overtaken by several cars on wet tyres and finished 7th. After the race an emotional Bourdais was in tears following the result. This marked his best weekend of the season and his first World Championship points since Melbourne.

Bourdais qualified in fourth place for the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. However, his car would not select first gear on the grid and had to start from the pit lane, a lap down (as the race started behind the safety car, there was no warm-up lap). Although he eventually finished a lap behind the race winner, team-mate Vettel, he set the second fastest lap of the race; only Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen went faster. At the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix he was 6th on the road, but received a 25-second penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Felipe Massa dropping him to 10th. Few agreed with the decision - ITV's Martin Brundle had stated during live TV coverage of the race that he felt Massa may receive a penalty, whilst his colleague James Allen states that 99% of experts he spoke to felt that Bourdais did not deserve a penalty; the FIA were under such public scrutiny at the time, [following a string of controversial decisions] that they made the unprecedented step of releasing publicly "stewards only" footage of the incident, to justify the decision.

Bourdais tested significantly for the Toro Rosso team during the winter, though he was uncertain of a drive heading in to the new year. On 6 February 2009 however he was confirmed as a Toro Rosso driver for a second year, partnering Swiss rookie Sébastien Buemi. Despite two points finishes in the year at the Australian Grand Prix and in Monaco, Bourdais struggled to match his more inexperienced team-mate. In Spain Bourdais and Buemi collided on the first lap ending the race for both drivers. At the British Grand Prix Bourdais collided with McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen, again ending the race for both. At the German Grand Prix he suffered a mechanical failure after qualifying last by over a second.

24 Hours of Le Mans

Bourdais has frequently contested the famous 24 hour race of his home town, entering for the first time in 1999 (aged only 20) in a Porsche 911 GT2 run by Larbre Competition. The car, which he shared with Pierre de Thoisy and Jean-Pierre Jarier, retired after 134 laps with engine failure.

He returned in 2000, finishing fourth with Emmanuel Clerico and Olivier Grouillard for the Pescarolo team behind the three dominant Audis.

His next three appearances did not go so well. He shared a Courage C60 with Jean-Christophe Boullion and Laurent Redon in 2001 but it retired after 271 laps. He drove the same model the next year and finished ninth in the LMP900 class with Bouillon and Franck Lagorce. He missed the 2003 race and returned in 2004, only for the car he shared with Nicolas Minassian and Emmanuel Collard to retire after 282 laps.

Bourdais' next assault on Le Mans would come at the wheel of a factory-backed Peugeot 908 in 2007. The car he shared with Stéphane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy finished the race second behind the winning Audi R10 TDi, despite an embarrassing slide on the first lap in wet conditions that cost Bourdais a place to one of the Audis, and car problems forcing him to park the car for the last minutes of the race, waiting for the lead R10 to cross the line. In his second Le Mans as part of the Peugeot factory team, in 2009, he finished one lap behind the winner in second place, behind the winning Peugeot.

Sports and stock car racing career

While racing in the junior formulae and Champ Cars, Bourdais made several appearances in other championships. He won the Spa 24 Hours in 2002 with Christophe Bouchut, David Terrien and Vincent Vosse in a Larbre Compétition Chrysler Viper GTS-R. He also won his class at the 2006 12 Hours of Sebring in a Panoz Esperante. In 2005 he also competed in the International Race of Champions, winning his first stock car race at Texas Motor Speedway. In 2009, he set the official lap record at Sebring International Raceway, during the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Motorsports career results

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
1995	French Formula Renault Campus	?	?	0	0	?	9th
1996	French Formula Renault	?	?	0	0	?	7th
1997	French Formula Renault	La Filière	18	5	4	172	2nd
1998	French Formula Three	La Filière	22	0	0	98	6th
	British Formula Three	La Filière	1	0	0	0	NC
	Macau Grand Prix	Equipe de France	1	0	0	N/A	NC
	Masters of Formula Three	?	1	0	0	N/A	20th
1999	French Formula Three	La Filière	20	3	8	229	1st
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Larbre Compétition (GTS)	1	0	0	N/A	NC
	Macau Grand Prix	Equipe de France	1	0	0	N/A	NC
	Masters of Formula Three	?	1	0	0	N/A	10th
2000	International Formula 3000	Prost Junior Team	10	1	0	9	9th
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Pescarolo Sport (LMP 900)	1	0	0	N/A	4th
2001	International Formula 3000	DAMS	12	1	1	26	4th
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Pescarolo Sport (LMP 900)	1	0	0	N/A	4th
	FIA Sportscar Championship	Pescarolo Sport (SR1)	2	0	0	0	NC
2002	International Formula 3000	Super Nova Racing	12	6	3	56	1st
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Pescarolo Sport (LMP 900)	1	0	0	N/A	10th
	FIA Sportscar Championship	Pescarolo Sport (SR1)	3	1	2	55	4th
2003	CART World Series	Newman/Haas Racing	18	5	3	159	4th
2004	Champ Car World Series	Newman/Haas Racing	14	8	7	369	1st
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Pescarolo Sport (LMP1)	1	0	0	N/A	NC
2005	Champ Car World Series	Newman/Haas Racing	13	6	6	348	1st
	International Race of Champions	N/A	4	2	1	46	5th
	IndyCar Series	Newman/Haas Racing	1	0	0	18	28th
	American Le Mans Series	Larbre Compétition (GTS)	1	0	0	0	NC
	Rolex Sports Car Series	Silverstone Racing	1	0	0	6	89th
2006	Champ Car World Series	Newman/Haas Racing	14	6	7	387	1st
	Grand-Am Cup GS	?	1	0	0	24	80th
2007	Champ Car World Series	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	14	6	8	364	1st
	Le Mans 24 Hours	Team Peugeot Total	1	1	0	N/A	2nd
2008	Formula One	Scuderia Toro Rosso	18	0	0	4	17th
2009	Le Mans 24 Hours	Team Peugeot Total	1	0	0	N/A	2nd
	Formula One	Scuderia Toro Rosso	9	0	0	2	16th*

*Season in progress.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2000	Gauloises Formula	Lola B99/50	Zytek V8	A	IMO Ret	SIL 10	CAT 8	NUR 4	MON Ret	MAG 2	A1R 9	HOC DNS	HUN 14	SPA Ret			9th	9
2001	DAMS	Lola B99/50	Zytek V8	A	INT 3	IMO Ret	CAT 11	A1R Ret	MON 4	NUR 8	MAG 6	SIL 1	HOC 4	HUN 3	SPA 6	MNZ 9	4th	26
2002	Super Nova Racing	Lola B02/50	Zytek-Judd KV	A	INT 14	IMO 1	CAT 3	A1R Ret	MON 1	NUR 1	SIL 2	MAG 2	HOC Ret	HUN 3	SPA 2	MNZ Ret	1st	56

American Open-Wheel

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

Champ Car results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2003	Newman/Haas	STP 11	MTY Ret	LBH Ret	BRH 1	LAU 1	MIL 9	LS Ret	POR Ret	CLE 1	TOR 4	VAN 3	ROA 2	MDO 5	MTL Ret	DEN 2	MIA Ret	MXC 2	SRF Ret	FON Canc	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	LS 8	LVS 1	SRF 2	MXC 1						1st	369*
2005	Newman/Haas	LBH 1	MTY 5	MIL 6	POR 2	CLE 5	TOR 5	EDM 1	SJO 1	DEN 1	MTL 4	LVS 1	SRF 1	MXC Ret							1st	348
2006	Newman/Haas	LBH 1	HOU 1	MTY 1	MIL 1	POR 3	CLE Ret	TOR 3	EDM 2	SJO 1	DEN 7	MTL 1	ROA 3	SRF 8	MXC 1						1st	387
2007	Newman/Haas/Lanigan	LVS Ret	LBH 1	HOU 1	POR 1	CLE Ret	MTT 2	TOR Ret	EDM 1	SJO 5	ROA 1	ZOL 1	ASN 7	SRF 1	MXC 1						1st	364

• * New points system introduced in 2004

IndyCar results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2005	Newman/Haas	HMS	PHX	STP	JPN	IND Ret	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPI	SNM	CHI	WGL	CAL	28th	18

Formula One results

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

Yr	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	WDC	Points
2008	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR2B	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS 7	MAL Ret	BHR 15	ESP Ret	TUR Ret														17th	4
		Toro Rosso STR3							MON Ret	CAN 13	FRA 17	GBR 11	GER 12	HUN 18	EUR 10	BEL 7	ITA 18	SIN 12	JPN 10	CHN 13	BRA 14
2009	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR4	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS 8	MAL 10	CHN 11	BHR 13	ESP Ret	MON 8	TUR 18	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN	EUR	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	BRA	ABU		16th*	2*

*Season in progress.

External links

• Official website
• Le Site des Fans de Sébastien Bourdais
• Racing career