Sébastien
Bourdais

Sébastien Bourdais was born in Le Mans on 28 February 1979. His father, Patrick, raced touring cars, hill climbs and sports cars. Bourdais started karting at the age of ten and moved into single-seaters in 1995. He won the French Formula 3 championship in 1999 and the International Formula 3000 title in 2002, beating Giorgio Pantano by two points.

In 2003 he joined Newman/Haas in CART/Champ Car racing in the United States. He took pole position for his first race, at St. Petersburg, the first rookie to do so since Nigel Mansell. He won at Brands Hatch and the Lausitzring, finished fourth in the standings and was named Rookie of the Year. From 2004 to 2007 he won four consecutive Champ Car titles. In 2005 he made his first start in the Indianapolis 500 and finished twelfth.

After several tests with Toro Rosso, it was announced in August 2007 that Bourdais would replace Vitantonio Liuzzi and partner Sebastian Vettel at the team. He made his debut at the 2008 Australian Grand Prix, working his way from seventeenth on the grid to fourth before an engine problem forced him out three laps from the end. He was classified eighth, later promoted to seventh after Rubens Barrichello's disqualification. In Belgium he ran as high as third and finished seventh. He ended 2008 seventeenth in the championship. In 2009 his team-mate was Sébastien Buemi. Bourdais scored points in Australia and Monaco, and in July Toro Rosso announced that he would be replaced from the Hungarian Grand Prix. He made 27 starts and finished nineteenth in the 2009 standings.

After Formula One, Bourdais raced in Superleague Formula in 2009 and 2010 and in IndyCar from 2011 to 2021. His wins there included Toronto in 2014, Detroit and Milwaukee in 2015, and St. Petersburg in 2017 and 2018. After a crash in qualifying for the 2017 Indianapolis 500 he missed most of that season, returning at Gateway. He did not compete full time in IndyCar after 2021.

In sports cars, Bourdais finished second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Peugeot in 2007 and 2009, and won the GTE-Pro class in 2016 with Ford. He won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2014 and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2015. In 2022 he became a Cadillac factory driver.

Source: Wikipedia, “Sébastien Bourdais”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.