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| 2014 was Sébastien Bourdais' best since returning to IndyCar in 2010 |
Sébastien Bourdais
The Frenchman entered the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season fresh off a victory at the 2014 Hours of Daytona but was approaching seven years since his last IndyCar victory in his final Champ Car start before heading to Formula One and Scuderia Toro Rosso. He had another slow start to his season. He started and finished 13th at St. Petersburg, started third at Long Beach put had two trips into the tires drop him to 14th and was never a factor at Barber, finishing 15th after being black flagged for contact with Mikhail Aleshin.
The April shower at Barber sprung May flowers for Bourdais at Indianapolis with a fourth in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis and seventh in the Indianapolis 500, his first top ten finish in the famed event. June however saw the Frenchman hit a slump with a 13th and 20th at Belle Isle with the second race ending in the tires and an accident at Texas with Justin Wilson gave him back-to-back 20th place finishes. Houston was much more kind to Bourdais with a fourth in race one after running toward the front all day and a fifth in race two after once again being toward the front of the field most of the race.
When IndyCar headed back to the ovals, Bourdais saw another slump. He finished a lap down in 16th at Pocono despite getting better fuel mileage than most of his competitors and had a mechanical failure at Iowa end his race after 130 laps. Bourdais started on pole position for race one at Toronto and the Frenchman cruised to victory, leading 58 of 65 laps. In race two, he finished ninth after having to start tenth due to the field being set by owners' points. He won another pole at Mid-Ohio and came home second after Scott Dixon nailed fuel mileage, however it would be the final top ten of the year for Bourdais.
He finished 12th at Milwaukee in an uneventful race and finished 11th at Sonoma where he hit everything but the pace car. At Fontana, Bourdais started 15th but never had a car that could compete at the front and finished 18th but ended up finishing tenth in the championship, his best championship finish since returning to IndyCar in 2011.
Sébastien Bourdais' 2014 Statistics
Championship Positions: 10th (461 points)
Wins: 1
Podiums: 2
Top Fives: 5
Top Tens: 7
Laps Led: 98
Poles: 2
Fast Sixes: 3
Fast Twelves: 8
Average Start: 9.822 (8th)
Average Finish: 11.277 (10th)
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| Sebastián Saavedra ended 2014 at the bottom of the IndyCar Championship |
While Bourdais started slow, Saavedra started surprisingly fast. He finished eleventh at St. Petersburg and thanks to a lot of attrition at Long Beach came home in ninth, his third career top ten finish, despite stalling on the grid. After that it was all down hill for the Colombian. He had a promising run at Barber after staying out on wet tires longer than anyone else, led 11 laps and was in contention for a podium but because he was pitting out of sequence, he ended up finishing 18th.
He took a surprise pole position for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis after Ryan Hunter-Reay brought out the red flag to end the final qualifying session but, just like at Long Beach, Saavedra stalled on the grid and gave the inaugural IndyCar race around the IMS road course it's Roberto Guerrero moment after his fellow countryman Carlos Muñoz and Mikhail Aleshin ran into the back of him. In the Indianapolis 500, he started in the middle of the last row but finished on the lead lap for the first time on an oval in his IndyCar career in 15th.
The rest of Saavedra's summer was a string of mid-pack finishes with a few retirements. He finished 14th in Belle Isle 1 and he would not finish on the lead lap again until Sonoma. He started ninth for Belle Isle 2 and he would only start in the top fifteen once in the following eleven races. Saavedra actually had a pattern from Texas to Iowa in his finishes with a 17th followed by 15th, 17th, 15th and 17th at Iowa. And Iowa was his best race of his career to this point! He was driving to the front, picking off the likes of Montoya, Castroneves, Power and Dixon and was running down Kanaan who dominated at Iowa. But then he put into the wall and let the air out of the balloon that was everyone thinking he had finally found his rhythm in IndyCar. After Iowa, his best finish was 16th at Sonoma.
Sebastián Saavedra's 2014 Statistics
Championship Positions: 21st (291 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 1
Laps Led:
Poles: 1
Fast Sixes: 1
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 16.777 (23rd)
Average Finish: 17.176 (23rd)
Head-to-Head
Better Finish: Sébastien Bourdais def. Sebastián Saavedra 13-5.
Better Qualifying Position: Bourdais def. Saavedra 15-3.
Bourdais showed he still has it to compete with the big boys and I only have to think if he had a teammate to match his skill set at KV Racing, that team would be able to take a step to the next level. I don't understand why Gary Peterson continues to fund Saavedra's career when the likes of JR Hildebrand, James Davidson, Sam Bird, Martin Plowman, Tristan Vautier, Gabby Chaves and Jack Harvey are on the outside. Saavedra is only 24 and I know I defend the likes of Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal for still being relatively young and having plenty of years ahead of them to win races and championships but it least we have seen Andretti and Rahal compete at the front of races and show some type of promise. Saavedra has done nothing in IndyCar to show he is capable of being a top driver. In 56 starts, he has finished on the lead lap only 16 times and out of his 21 oval starts, this year's Indianapolis 500 is his only lead lap finish on an oval.
I wish Indy Lights can develop into a series where a driver could actually have a career at the second level just like what Jason Keller did in the NASCAR Busch, now-Nationwide, soon-to-be-Xfinity Series because Saavedra would make a great career Lights driver who could make attempt the Indianapolis 500 every year but when it comes to IndyCar full-time, he just isn't cut to be there.
He is holding KV back and that team has potential to take a step forward, pass the likes of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Other than Indianapolis the team struggled on ovals and with the triple crown races worth double points, one bad run could cost you four or five spots in the championship. I expect Bourdais to return the only question is will he have a teammate that can keep up with the four-time champion?
