Planet-F1

Sebastien Bourdais Profile

Saturday 26th January 2008

Seldom has one driver's arrival in F1 being so hotly anticipated as that of four-time ChampCar Champion Sebastien Bourdais.

Born into a racing family with his father Patrick racing in touring cars and sports cars, Sebastien began his racing career at age 10 in karts. During the early 1990s he competed in various karting Championships, winning both the Maine Bretagne League and Cadet France Championship.

The Frenchman progressed to single-seater racing in 1995, eventually winning the French Formula 3 in 1999, with eight wins and three poles.

Following his success he joined the Prost Junior Team in the International F3000 Championship, finishing ninth in the series with one pole and a best finish of second. A move to the DAMS outfit saw take his first victory at Silverstone, while in 2002 he joined Super Nova Racing, registering three victories and seven pole positions. That season he clinched the Championship by two points over Giorgio Pantano.

However, it was in ChampCars that Sebastien really made a name for himself.

In his first season with Newman-Haas Racing he became the first rookie since Nigel Mansell to claim pole position for his very first race. Three victories saw him finish fourth in the standings and crowned the Rookie Of The Year.

Staying with Newman-Haas for 2004, Bourdais dominated the series with seven wins and eight poles, beating his team-mate Junqueira to the title by 28 points. His record also included podium finishes in 10 out of 14 events and qualifying results no lower than third all season.

More titles followed in 2005 and 2006 making him the first ChampCar driver to win three consecutive titles since Ted Horn completed the hat trick in 1948. However, the Frenchman didn't stop there, clinching his fourth successive title in 2007 with victory at the Lexmark Indy 300 on October 21.

His big break into Formula One finally occurred in August 2007 after years of knocking on the door when Toro Rosso announced that Bourdais would be racing for them in this year's Championship. French F1 fans rejoiced.

However, only time will tell how the Frenchman copes not only with F1 but also with the fact that the perpetual front-runner will now - in all probability - be lapping near the back of the pack.