IndyCar to F1 gone wrong - Sebastien Bourdais’ failed F1 stint

After dominating over in America, Sebastien Bourdais made his long awaited F1 debut in 2008, and there was a lot of expectation surrounding him. However, his stint in F1 would end up being a disaster, which lead to him being sacked halfway through 2009. In this video, I go through his F1 stint, and why it didn't work out for him.
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[@statto300]

I always remember Bourdais in Champ Car with that iconic McDonalds livery

[@ivaneurope]

Bourdais was dominating in an era when ChampCar was a shell of its former self - this was a time when the Indy Racing League (formed in 1996 by Tony George as a FU to CART) was getting the upper hand as now it had the top marquee teams like Penske, Andretti (f.k.a. Team Green) and Ganasi along with their sponsors like Marlboro and Target while Honda and Toyota also jumped ship, because all of them want to race at the Indy 500. Sure, ChampCar still had Newman-Haas, Forsythe and Ford still hanging around, but it wasn't the same as the glory days of CART in the 90's when it could even rival F1 in terms of popularity. With depleting entries ChampCar had no choice but to merge with the IRL (which by then was using the Indycar name) in 2008. In Toro Rosso Bourdais was always going to be the odd one out - this team was supposed to nurture the next talents coming from the Red Bull Academy (at least in the first years of existence). Not only that he was too old, but also outside from the Academy (the last non-Red Bull affiliated driver until Sergio Perez) which would be always a disadvantage. Not to mention that he was paired with Vettel, who would become a 4-time Formula One World Champion with 50+ wins under his belt and was the main focus of Red Bull at the time.

[@jamesprumos7775]

Which is ironic because nowadays the Red Bull Academy might as well be non-existent.

[@Midtable1881]

He was unlucky but god that 2008 Toro Rosso is a good looking car.

[@lonewolf2513]

Bourdais was put on this earth to drive Indycars and Prototypes.

[@rhodriedwardwilliams]

Totally disagree he did a solid Job in F1 especially against Vettel

[@lonewolf2513]

He did ok. But the man was meant to race over here.

[@Scorpio19110]

If F1 technology advances to have cars easier for older drivers to drive, then older drivers will not be as overlooked as they are currently. Frentzen was 27 when he joined and had a relatively successful career for a midfield driver, notwithstanding the one time he drove a championship winning car. Palou may have done a solid effort in F1, even if it meant not staying at McLaren for more than a season or two. Back on topic: Bourdais had the unfortunate situation of sometimes not having much competition, either Newman-Haas were stronger, or other teams had a worse lineup that couldn’t challenge him. One couldn’t really say whether he would have landed an F1 drive if ChampCar had the drivers IRL had.

[@ivaneurope]

Paul Newman and Carl Haas were one of the few to remain loyal to CART/Champ Car during the series' darkest days, while the other big names such as Penske, Ganassi, Andretti and Rahal decided to defect to the other side (i.e. Tony George and the IRL). And considering that Newman-Haas was the only one of CART's top dogs remaining it was a cakewalk - sure, Gerald Forsythe's team was still there with Paul Tracy (a notorious powder keg and the only driver to defeat Bourdais, which was in 2003) and other smaller teams like RSPORTS (founded by Paul Gentilozzi and Carl Russo) with Justin Wilson, Team Australia with Will Power (and Simon Pagenaud in 2007) and Minardi USA (Paul Stoddart entered the series under the Minardi name with Keith Wiggins' HVM Racing) with Robert Doornbos did offer some resistance over the years, but they were no match for Newman-Haas and Bourdais.

[@davidmarecek1754]

5:28 the 2002 F3000 championship ended up being quite a farce (and I'm not saying it just for being Czech and having bias towards Enge), not only because of the Enge failing drug test in Hungary, but also because Pantano could've won it as well, if not for Coloni (Pantano's team that year) shenanigans in Spain.

[@bartomiejczerwinski5897]

What shenanigans in Spain? Pantano won in Spain that year.

[@davidmarecek1754]

@@bartomiejczerwinski5897 shoot, my bad. I thought I heard somewhere that he was being held up by his teammate in Spain, but actualy it was Hungary again.

[@SiVlog1989]

Side note, Bourdais actually set a faster average race speed at Monza in 2008 than Vettel, but being a lap down before he even started meant that he couldn't do much, eventually being classified 18th

[@Jasongilliar]

Great video, great work

[@MinikSchauf]

3:36 what is this music😭 phone company simulator or smth fr-💀

[@axemanracing6222]

Racing IndyCar feels legit these days. F1 is a shell of its former self. I remember those times when they changed the rules every year to break Schumacher's dominance. Since the frozen rules (2014-2020) with a superior car on the grid for years to come, F1 wasn't F1 anymore. I'm still watching but only to be angry about inconsistency and politics.

[@DJDouglasWarden]

You can't say Thomas wasn't idiot for taking the substance that day period when it comes to cannabis, you can smoke a joint and still test positive for it.30 days later period I find it hypocritical that raising organizations ban a natural plant.That doesn't even affect the way you drive but it's okay to celebrate drinking alcohol

[@ic3man]

9:20 Junqueira Nazareth 2001 was at the time most recent rookie to get pole position.

[@lonewolf2513]

I believe he meant the first rookie to do so in his first career start

[@ic3man]

@@lonewolf2513 ah. Interesting fact: most recent driver today to get pole on debut is Robert Wickens 2018 St. Pete. Bourdais won

[@potatogirlcultist19]

Main takeaway from the video: Weed makes you drive fast. If not so, why would they have disqualified Mr. Egne?

[@Charlzrp]

however

[@PeTroL420]

Bourdais didn't make it in F1 because he was in that crappy Toro Rosso. Same with Zanardi. By the time Zanardi got to Williams, Williams was on its decline. But Jacques Villenueve went to a primetime Williams and won an F1 championship but when Villenueve went to second tier BAR, he wasn't so good. Even Verstappen couldn't do much in those crappy Toro Rossos.

[@jordanblair4077]

I’m sorry but Bourdais and Zanardi aren’t even remotely comparable. Zanardi hardly showed any glimpses of speed which teammate Ralf Schumacher was able to. In fact, Zanardi didn’t score a single point, whereas Schumacher scored 35 and 3 podiums. That Williams should have finished P3 comfortably as it did in 1998 but Zanardi was not up to the task at all. At least Bourdais was somewhat competitive with teammate Vettel…

[@PeTroL420]

@@jordanblair4077 Zanardi and Bourdais ARE comparable because they're both Champ Car/CART champions. And I wasn't comparing drivers per their cars because if you went by that metric, Alex Albon just plain sucks since he wasn't able to come close to Verstappen's pace. Hamilton, LeClerc and Norris are all fantastic drivers that are hampered by their crappy cars just like Zanardi and Bourdais were with their crappy cars.

[@jordanblair4077]

@@PeTroL420 “I wasn’t comparing drivers per their cars” - well you literally said that when Villeneuve went to BAR he wasn’t very good, and yet he completely outperformed teammates Zonta and Panis. Literally the only similarity between Zanardi and Bourdais is that they had a background racing in the US. Their ability, luck, etc are completely different.

[@PeTroL420]

@@jordanblair4077 Villenueve was faster than his teammates at BAR but he still never won a race in that car which was my point in the first place. It doesn't matter how good of a driver you are if you're put into a crappy machine. You're using Bourdais' and Zanardi's teammates as a gauge as to how their driving performance was but Bourdais and Zanardi had the disadvantage of not only being in inferior equipment but cars that were totally different than what they were use to. They might have needed a little more time to adjust but they were pressured externally out of F1. Bourdais and Zanardi weren't just champions, they were multiple time champions in CART/Champ Car. I'd like to see how Buemi or Schumacher would've done in American open wheel racing where all the cars are the same and it's just driver skill that wins.

[@jordanblair4077]

@@PeTroL420 In F1 the stopwatch doesn’t lie. Zanardi was considerably slower than his teammate, and that’s why he was bought out of his contract at the year’s end. It had nothing to do with inferior equipment because Ralf clearly showed that - if you perform well, you stay in the sport. You think the only gauge is being in the best car and winning? Drivers come up through the ranks because they first do better in inferior machinery.

[@ralphe5842]

How about Michael Andretti

[@calvindmncn8085]

Toro rosso was giving everything's to vettel the other sebastien. Like they does later with Riccardo against vettel then verstappen

[@AdamHinckley]

24:01 don't forget that he went to sportscars afterwards *EDIT* you did talk about it few seconds later *EDIT 2* think he won Le Mans prior to 2016 with Peugeot lmp1

[@lonewolf2513]

Nope his best finish with that squad was 2nd

[@AdamHinckley]

@@lonewolf2513 I thought he did win one year

[@lonewolf2513]

@@AdamHinckley with the Ford GT but not overall