What we spoke of a few weeks is now reality: This weekend Sebastien Bourdais makes his return to IndyCar, on the occasion of the opening round of the 2011 season on 27th March at St. Petersburg (Florida) .

In late 2008, when he was in F1 with Toro Rosso, contacts with Michael Andretti's team had failed to bring Sebastien Bourdais to the USA. Quadruple champion from 2004 to 2007 in Paul Newman's stable, this year he joined Dale Coyne Racing. A small team, but of consumate experience and long accustomed to the discipline.

In addition to Bourdais' program in endurance with Peugeot, the driver from Le Mans will contest the nine rounds of IndyCar 2011 on road circuits. No ovals for the moment, even if Sebastien Bourdais remains to this day the last French driver to have started the Indianapolis 500 in 2005. "I had attended for the first time in 2003, during my first season in the United States", he told the press conference of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest in February. "The common point between Indianapolis and Le Mans is a big story. It's very difficult to describe, but one senses it immediately that it breathes differently, it inspires something else. It's a wonderful event. I would love to go back, but under good conditions, because the American page of my career is far from being turned. "

Sebastien Bourdais is not the only Peugeot driver to have crossed the Atlantic. Andretti-Green driver in American Le Mans Series in 2008, Franck Montagny also drove a round IndyCar this year, and Simon Pagenaud could also make his debut in this discipline in 2011 with Highcroft Racing, with whom he finished second at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the opening round of the Intercontinental Cup in Le Mans 2011.

Jean-Philippe Doret

Photo: Sebastian Bourdais if bound for America, he nevertheless remains a native son of Le Mans, still very popular and competitive during the week of 24 hours.