Sébastien Bourdais
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Sébastien Bourdais |
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| Champ Car World Series Record | |
| Nationality |  French |
| Car # | 1 |
| Current team | Newman/Haas Racing |
| Race starts | 56 |
| Series Championships | 3 (2004, 2005, 2006) |
| Wins | 22 |
| Podium finishes | 33 |
| Pole positions | 23 |
| First Champ Car race | 2003 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg |
| First win | 2003 London Champ Car Trophy (Brands Hatch) |
| edit | |
Sébastien Bourdais (born February 28, 1979 in Le Mans, France) is a race car driver and three-time Champ Car series champion.
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[edit] Early years
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.
In 1995, he moved up to single-seater racing, finishing 9th in the Formula Campus Championship. Then, he 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 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 series 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 Racing car to three victories and seven pole positions to win the series championship after Tomáš Enge was penalized for failing a drug test.
[edit] Champ Car
Following the footsteps of recent F3000 graduates such as Juan Pablo Montoya and Bruno Junqueira, Bourdais moved to Champ Car racing and joined Newman-Haas Racing for the 2003 season. At St. Petersburg, FL, 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 Junqueira by 28 points. His outstanding record also included podium finishes in 10 out of 14 events and qualifying results no lower than third 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 conquered 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, 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.
It has been rumoured recently that Bourdais could drive for the BMW Sauber team as a testing role in the 2007 Formula One Season.
Sebastien has also been given a test with Scuderia Toro Rosso leading to speculation that he may replace the American driver Scott Speed or even Italian driver Vitantonio Liuzzi both of which are not confirmed drivers on the FIA entry list for 2007 yet.
[edit] Trivia
- Bourdais currently resides in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife Claire and daughter Emma (*02.12.2006).
- 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.
[edit] External links
[edit] Complete Champ Car results
| 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 3 |
SUR 8 |
MEX 1 |
1st | 387 |
| Preceded by: David Saelens |
French Formula Three Championship Champion 1999 |
Succeeded by: Jonathan Cochet |
| Preceded by: Justin Wilson |
International Formula 3000 Champion 2002 |
Succeeded by: Björn Wirdheim |
| Preceded by: Mario Dominguez |
CART Rookie of the Year 2003 |
Succeeded by: A.J. Allmendinger (as Champ Car Rookie of the Year) |
| Preceded by: Paul Tracy |
Champ Car World Series Champion 2004 – present |
Incumbent |
| 2006 Champ Car World Series | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newman/Haas | Forsythe | CTE-HVM | Australia | PKV | Rocketsports | RuSPORT | Coyne | Conquest | |
| 1 Bourdais 2 Junqueira |
3 Tracy 7 Rice |
4 Philippe 14 Clarke |
5 Power 15 Tagliani |
6 Servia 20 Legge |
8 Dominguez 18 Pizzonia |
9 Wilson 10 Briscoe |
11 Heylen 19 Wirth |
27 Ranger 34 Zwolsman |
|
| Long Beach - Houston - Monterrey - Milwaukee - Portland - Cleveland - Toronto - Edmonton - San Jose - Denver - Montreal - Road America - Surfers Paradise - Mexico City | |||||||||
