page_title: Sébastien Bourdais
section_title: IndyCar career
hierarchical_section_title: Sébastien Bourdais / IndyCar career
caption_attribution_description: English: Sebastien Bourdais #11 after the 2015 Indianapolis 500
context_page_description: Sébastien Olivier Bourdais is a French professional racing driver, who resides in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of American Championship car racing, having won 37 races. He won four successive championships under Champ Car World Series sanction from 2004 to 2007.
  He drove in Formula One for the Toro Rosso team during 2008, and the start of the 2009 season, returned to America in the united IndyCar Series in 2011, and has raced sports cars throughout his career, winning his home race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the GTE-Pro class in 2016.
  He is currently signed to drive the No. 5 JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R as full-time in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the No. 14 car for AJ Foyt Enterprises as part-time in the NTT Indycar Series.
context_section_description: Bourdais made his IRL debut at the 2005 Indianapolis 500. In his first full-time season in the IRL (2011) with Dale Coyne, Bourdais wound up 23rd in the championship, scoring fastest race lap at Edmonton.
  A switch to Dragon Racing Team for 2012–13, first with the ill-fated Lotus, then with improved Chevrolet power, he finish 25th and 12th, respectively, in the IndyCar championship. By 2014, Bourdais broke through for two pole positions, and one victory. By midpoint in the 2015 season, his second year driving for Jimmy Vasser's KV Racing team alongside teammate Stefano Coletti, Bourdais's stock steadily rose, to top 20 status in the world drivers' ranking.
  On 20 July 2014, having won the 1st heat race in Toronto, Sébastien Bourdais joined Al Unser Jr. and Ryan Hunter-Reay as the third driver in the history of organised motor sport to score open-wheel Championship Racing victories, under three sanctioning bodies (e.g., CART, and CCWS, and IRL sanction), in North America. Against stiff opposition, Bourdais finished 2014 scoring 5 top-5s, and 10th overall in the 2014 IRL championship.
  On 31 May 2015, in the second heat race at Belle Isle, Detroit, in a drive from far back on the grid harkening back to Stefan Bellof at Monaco in 1984, effortlessly carving his way by lesser drivers on a tight, composite street circuit, in heavy rain, breaking through with an impressive, high-profile victory and fastest race lap, Bourdais recorded his 33rd victory in American Championship car racing, just behind Al Unser Jr. with 34.
  On 12 July 2015, at the Milwaukee Mile, Bourdais dominated the field and had the entire field a lap down at one point and won, his second of the 2015 season. He finished 10th in points. After KV Racing went down to one team for 2016, Bourdais struggled with a lone win again at Detroit. He finished in 14th in points for 2016. In October 2016, it was announced that Bourdais would make the change to Dale Coyne racing to drive the number 18 for the 2017 season. His KVSH race engineer Olivier Boisson would also follow him to DCR.
  In his first race back to DCR, Bourdais won the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg to start the 2017 season coming from last after a qualifying crash, on 12 March 2017. He backed this up with another recovery drive at the Long Beach race, starting from ninth and making an early rear wing change, to finish second, extending his lead in the series standings.
  On 20 May 2017, Bourdais was involved in a single-car accident while qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. He suffered multiple fractures to his pelvis and a fracture to his right hip. The surgery was successful but Bourdais was forced to sit out for most of the season to recover. Bourdais would return at Gateway and run the final three races of the season.
  In 2018, Bourdais returned to the Dale Coyne Racing Team now partnered with investors James "Sulli" Sullivan and former driver Jimmy Vasser as Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan. The team also found steady sponsorship in the form of SealMaster, and SportClips Haircuts. Bourdais started The Firestone St. Petersburg Grand Prix in 14th place. He ended up losing a tire on the opening lap but the misfortunes of Will Power and Tony Kanaan saved him from going a lap down. He went on an off sequence pit strategy and found himself 3rd with a handful of laps to go. On the final restart, Alexander Rossi divebombed the first corner and got his tires locked up on the slick airport runway paint and got into race leader Robert Wickens who had led 67 laps that day and Bourdais snuck by to win. It was his first win since last year at St. Petersburg and his first since the injury. Bourdais was emotional in victory lane and said "he never doubted that he would run in IndyCar again". Bourdais went on to win pole at the very next race in Phoenix, his first on an oval since 2006. Bourdais was also the only driver to lead laps at each of the first four races of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season.
  On November 22, 2019, Dale Coyne Racing announced that Bourdais would not return to the team in 2020.
  On F
caption: Bourdais' No. 11 car after the running of the 2015 Indianapolis 500 where he placed 11th
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