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| It was not Sébastien Bourdais' greatest year but it was far from terrible |
Sébastien Bourdais
The Frenchman did not have the same level of success we saw in the previous two seasons but Bourdais held his own and was important to the performance of Dale Coyne Racing.What objectively was his best race?
Bourdais had a third place finish at Barber Motorsports Park after starting fifth. He was actually giving Scott Dixon a good fight for second.
What subjectively was his best race?
Laguna Seca because Bourdais went from 19th to seventh with a sore neck and at one point he had dropped to about 22nd. At the start, it appeared Bourdais was not going to have it. It appeared the neck was in worse condition than first thought and this would have been an earlier retirement for him. He kept going and Bourdais has a knack of going from nothing to something. He did this at Mid-Ohio in 2018. He won from 21st at St. Petersburg in 2017, albeit with a timely caution, but he still has it.
Another race to note is Austin, where Bourdais went from 17th to fifth. Bourdais did gain a few positions after the likes of Will Power and Alexander Rossi were shuffled back due to pit stops under caution but he was a mover and took advantage of the one restart and made up a handful of sports there. This result came after uncertainty over how his car would drive in the race.
What objectively was his worst race?
It was 30th in the Indianapolis 500 after he and Graham Rahal got together in turn three with 24 laps to go.
What subjectively was his worst race?
Again, it is Indianapolis, because Bourdais was going to finish in the top ten but he could have been fighting for a top five in the closing stages. If that accident doesn't happen, the race stays green and the Chevrolets of Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter are all in fuel conservation mode. Those three were either going to be slowing down and trying to stretch it or coming for a splash and go in the final laps. In that case, Bourdais is up a few spots and it could have been a great result.
I think St. Petersburg deserves a mention because he lost an engine after 11 laps and Gateway as well deserves a mention because he was fighting for a top five before he spun with broken rear suspension.
Sébastien Bourdais' 2019 Statistics
Championship Position: 11th (387 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Top Fives: 2
Top Tens: 9
Laps Led: 19
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 2
Fast Twelves: 6
Average Start: 10.875
Average Finish: 11.412
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| Santino Ferrucci: The most polarizing IndyCar driver in 2019 |
Santino Ferrucci
In his first full season in IndyCar, Ferrucci was one of the top performers on ovals and he was also one of the most consistent drivers in 2019. It led to a lot of praise of his driving but it also covered up for below-average road and street course performances.What objectively was his best race?
Ferrucci's best finish was fourth and it happened three times, all at ovals, Texas, Pocono and Gateway.
What subjectively was his best race?
It is Gateway because Ferrucci was a competitive car from the start while at Texas and Pocono he definitely got to fourth thanks to attrition and circumstances. Ferrucci was at the front for the entirety of Gateway and he got to the lead on speed. He led 97 laps and if his teammate Bourdais doesn't spin, Ferrucci may have won this race. The three guys that finished ahead of him, Takuma Sato, Ed Carpenter and Tony Kanaan, all caught a break with that caution. It will be a what might have been for him.
He was Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year with a seventh place result and he his avoidance of cars in the Rahal-Bourdais incident earned him attention.
What objectively was his worst race?
The season finale at Laguna Seca, where Ferrucci locked up the brakes and ran into Takuma Sato into the hairpin on the only restart of the race. It broke Ferrucci's front suspension and he had to park it off course in turn six, ending his race with a 24th place result.
What subjectively was his worst race?
I will list three:
Austin, where he was on the edge of the top ten for most of it after starting 11th but he broke a rear damper after going wide and it dropped him to 20th.
Another mechanical issue came at Portland. Ferrucci may have had a top ten finish had it not been for an electrical problem that took him out of the race and left him 17th in the final results.
At Long Beach, Ferrucci was the 21st finisher after he blew turn one and then stalled getting the car turned around. It cost him two laps.
Santino Ferrucci's 2019 Statistics
Championship Position: 13th (351 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 3
Top Tens: 7
Laps Led: 118
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 3
Average Start: 15.375
Average Finish: 12.824
Dale Coyne Racing could make history in 2020 and that history would be retaining the same two drivers for consecutive seasons.
This is not a team used to this much stability. Bourdais has the third most starts with the team. Ferrucci is up to tied for 13th most with Tarso Marques and Carlos Huertas. Seventy-nine different drivers have started an IndyCar race for Dale Coyne Racing since the team's first start in 1984 at Mid-Ohio with Dale Coyne himself behind the wheel.
The team has kept the lights on and took the long road to success. The 2019 season is a little bit of a disappointment. The team failed to win a race for the first time since 2016. It is only the third season in the DW12-era the team did not pick up a victory.
IndyCar is tough and even if the Bourdais-Ferrucci duo is retained for 2020 there is no guarantee the results will get better. Bourdais is still a guy that can win races. Ferrucci may be a guy that can win races. This team is always going to be fighting uphill with fewer resources than Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Autosport and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
The fact that Dale Coyne Racing has regularly been ahead of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for the last three years is an accomplishment and it makes you wonder if McLaren is getting into bed with the right team.
It is tough to predict Dale Coyne Racing because it is a small team and one small change behind the scenes that would not even be noticed at Penske could cause a significant turn in results for DCR.
The one thing to note about Ferrucci is he was in a good situation, things went right for him this year and it led to a positive attitude. However, when he was in Europe, facing the pressures of the European ladder system and not getting ideal results it led to the outburst of poor behavior that led to a Formula Two ban. We didn't really see him in a difficult situation in 2019 and I think we will learn more about him when he has a few rough race weekends and cannot find the pace.
We are not even sure Ferrucci is going to be back next year with Coyne. It makes sense. It seems like the money will be there and it seems like Ferrucci isn't sniffing around for a seat somewhere else. If Ferrucci leaves, Coyne will find another driver, who knows of what quality but he will find another.
As long as Bourdais is there and is paired with Craig Hampson and Michael Cannon is the team's other engineer, Dale Coyne Racing will have strong days and be fighting with the big boys when it otherwise should be struggling to stand out in the middle of the field.
