INDYCAR: Sebastien Bourdais Season Review & Photo Gallery

SPEED.com continues its driver-by-driver review of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season with Dragon Racing's Sebastien Bourdais.

Marshall Pruett | Posted December 24, 2012

Sebastien Bourdais' Dragon Racing entry wore many different liveries in 2012 as the team switched engine suppliers and ownership of its lone full-season entry, but the Frenchman still delivered. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

SPEED.com continues its driver-by-driver review of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season with some help from the driver who placed 25th in the championship.

Driver: Sebastien Bourdais
Team: Dragon Racing
Engine: Lotus/Chevy*
Rounds: 11 of 15*
Championship Position/Points: 25th/173
Best Result: 4th, Mid-Ohio
Podium Visits: 0
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 2
Finishes of 15th or Worse: 9
Average Finishing Position: 18.7*
Average Finishing Position Road Courses/Street Courses/Ovals: 11.6/18.8/20*
Average Finishing Position Road Courses/Street Courses/Ovals Rankings: 10th/24th/24th*

(*Partial season, and with different engine manufacturers.)

Sebastien Bourdais Says:

Highlight of the Year: We didn't really shine anywhere in the end. If you just look at results of what’s the best, I think in terms of the consistency over the weekend, it definitely was Mid-Ohio. So, in terms of the all-around weekend, that was one but then I think the first proper performance we had in terms of pace and everything, it was Barber. There was a dog in the back of the car [Lotus ] and it wasn't barking very loud. I think that was the first light that was kind of coming up. And then after that what you see is a lot of really good runs. At Sonoma, we didn’t get the result we wanted. We were pretty strong in P3 when we had the crash. And then Baltimore, probably. We had a capable car before the rain made a mess of that and strategies came into play but that suspension failure ended it for us. So when you take races individually you will see there was plenty of potential that didn’t transform but that's also why we’re coming back. I definitely feel like there is something left to do.

Lowlight of the Year: The disappointment was definitely Indy. I knew we were not going to be strong but I never would have imagined that it would be that bad. [Dragon teammate] Katherine [Legge] was much more racy out there than I was. I couldn't do anything with the car. She looked like she definitely could. For sure, setups had gone a different way because we tried things and apparently it didn't work out on race day. We just never quite seemed to be able to get a consistent car on our runs in traffic. Or at least close enough but you can expect to run in traffic and do something. So that was a major disappointment.

At Edmonton we struggled very much. Just couldn't quite find the solution. Loose in, a lot of understeer in the middle and wheel locking. Just couldn't quite make it up. On the road course, in Edmonton, the team overall seemed like we had some speed. We qualified 12 for some unexplained reason. I'm not quite sure what happened there. And race day, just absolutely painful. I've never been, I guess, in that position where you kind of just look ahead from the distance because that's all you can do. That was very, very disappointing and frustrating.

Session You’d Rank as Your Personal Best in 2012?: There were plenty of moments, every time we made the Fast 6 I was pretty happy. And the best qualifying effort with third in both Baltimore and Sonoma. Achieved in very different ways because Baltimore for me was a real drag after the Sonoma crash. I was pretty shaken and not at my 100 percent. So, for me, it was the best accomplishment because we were strong and the car must've been really good because I definitely wasn't in a situation where I could really push myself to the extreme.

What Needs Improvement for 2013?: For me, the biggest challenge is if we’re going to be good on the championship run I need to get myself back up in action straightaway pretty much on the ovals. I don't have a lot of experience on the ovals. I mean, I have some. But on the very, very low downforce setups I have none, except the 2005 Indy 500, which arguably, is close but less downforce than what I've experienced out here. That was a long time ago. And then I haven’t set foot in Iowa ever and I've never been to Texas ever in open-wheel. I haven't been in Pocono ever, but that's the same for everyone. I haven't been to Milwaukee since 2006…

So I’m not particularly concerned about it but, for sure, that's going to be the biggest challenge. For us I think after that very challenging season for the team, the biggest challenge is the structure and to be more organized to be the sort of team that’s got expectation now. We didn't really have any expectations coming into last year’s season. Now it's different. We've seen some potential and it's time to show it.

PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view INDYCAR: Sebastien Bourdais 2012

Marshall Pruett Says:

Most IndyCar drivers walked away from their 2012 seasons with a bunch of fact-based results to ponder, but Sebastien Bourdais wasn’t one of them.

The Frenchman was left with a year of theoretical possibilities to consider.

If he’d had a Chevy engine from the outset, and if he’d been able to compete at every round, he could have been a much bigger player in the championship, but the 4-time Champ Car champion was left to work his magic in short bursts during IndyCar’s big season of learning with its new chassis and engine package.

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