Sébastien Bourdais

Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (born 28 February 1979) is a French professional racing driver.

He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, having won 37 races.

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 progressed to single-seater racing in 1995, finishing 9th in the Formula Campus by Renault and Elf Championship.

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.

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.

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.

After his Formula 3000 career and with no prospects for graduation to Formula 1, Bourdais signed with Opel to race in the DTM in 2003.

His manager, David Sears, inserted a clause in his contract which allowed him to break his contract without penalties in the event that he managed to secure a drive in Formula 1, CART or the Indy Racing League.

Bourdais tested for Opel but did not drive in a DTM race because he managed to secure a drive in CART for 2003.

Bourdais was to be paid €250,000 for his 2003 season with Opel.

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 season.

At St. Petersburg, Florida, Bourdais became the first rookie since Nigel Mansell to claim pole position for his very first race.

Bourdais was paid US $70,000 to drive for Newman/Haas Racing in 2003.

He won four successive championships under Champ Car World Series sanction from 2004 to 2007.

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 teammate 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 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.

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.

He was a Peugeot Sport factory driver from 2007 to 2011, finishing runner-up three times at his home race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Later he competed at the IndyCar Series from 2011 to 2021.

He also entered 27 races in Formula One for the Toro Rosso team during and the start of.

Bourdais has raced sports cars throughout his career, with spells at the Rolex Sports Car Series, American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, FIA World Endurance Championship, and currently the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

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 the Lausitzring.

By the end of the season, he had earned five more podium finishes, including a win from the 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.

That May, he also finished 12th in his first Indianapolis 500.

The Frenchman was a Ford Performance factory driver from 2016 to 2019, winning the GTE-Pro class at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He became a Cadillac factory driver in 2022.

Born into a racing family in Le Mans (his father Patrick raced in touring cars, hill climbs and sports cars), Bourdais began his racing career at age 10 in karts.