Tag: Sebastian Bourdais

Sebring Test and Other Notes

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Photo: Mick Schumacher testing at Sebring. All photos by Chris Jones, Penske Entertainment

Some personal news:

Winter headquarters is no more, and I will be staying in Indianapolis most of the year from now on. While I enjoyed my winters in Florida, the cost of living there got to be hard on the budget.

The two day IndyCar test at Sebring International Raceway The previous two days didn’t tell us a lot about what to expect for the season, but it was fun seeing cars on track. Thanks to my friends who sent photos and videos of a session I would have attended.

Start Getting Used to It

I am happy for the visuals of Will Power5 in the 26 and David Malukas in the 12. I bet I will still mix them up at St. Pete.

Here is Will Power in his new home:

The car has more yellow than it idi in 2025 when Colton Herta drove it, so that helps me remember there is a new driver in the cockpit.

David Malukas is now Power’s former ride:

The predominant red and the yellow band across the top of the aeroscreen says, “New driver.”

For the record, Alex Palou led session 1 Monday morning. Marcus Armstrong led sessions 2 and the first group on Tuesday morning. Kyle Kirkwood led the final session Tuesday afternoon.

All teams had the opportunity to work with the 2026 tire compound. Marcus Armstrong didn’t see a lot of difference from last season’s tire.

Is He or Isn’t He?

Romain Grosjean, long believed to be the mysterious TBA, drove car 19 for Dale Coyne Racing during the test. We are still waiting for a formal announcement that Grosjean will drive the number 19 entry for the season. I guess we will know February 27.

St. Pete Homecomings

The support races at the season opener in St. Pete will likely have more people paying attention to them this year.

Last week four time IndyCar champion and three time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Fr5anchitti announced that he will drive in the NASCAR truck race Saturday afternoon..

This morning, another four time IndyCar champion, Sebastien Bourdais, was announced as a driver in the MX-5 cup events.

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a great event, and adding these former IndyCar stars to the support races takes the program up several notches.

I will be back in a couple of days with The Pit Window’s highly anticipated (dreaded?) season preview.

IMSA Race Day

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SCHEDULE (All times local):

8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.: Public gates open

10:20-11:20 a.m.: Fan Grid Walk

11:40 a.m.-5:40 p.m.: TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Race (six hours)

TICKETS: $60 for General Admission seating for the IMSA TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks. Children 15 and under are admitted free with a paying adult in General Admission grandstand seating locations and infield viewing mounds. Reserved seating is available for $304 in the Hulman Terrace Club.

PUBLIC GATES OPEN (8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.): Gate 1, Gate 2, Gate 4, Gate 6S, Gate 7S.

PARKING: Main Gate Parking Alert – The Main Gate Lot is inaccessible due to the closure of Polco Street. A Main Gate parking pass will grant access to Lot 3 during the IMSA weekend. Please enter via 16th Street. Free parking, including ADA parking, is available in the Hulman Lot with limited availability. Paid parking is available in Lot 2 and Lot 3 for $20 and in Gate 1 Lot for $75. Paid ADA parking is available in Lot 2 and Lot 3 for $20 and Gate 1 for $75. Motorcycle parking in Gate 1 can be purchased for $20.

CASHLESS OPERATIONS: IMS is a cashless facility. Please be prepared to complete ticket, parking, concession and merchandise purchases with ease via debit or credit card. Tap-to-pay phone payments will be accepted, as will credit and debit transactions.

MUSEUM: The IMS Museum is closed for a major renovation, reopening in April 2025. To learn more, please visit imsmuseum.org/renovation.

Although this is the second year for the IMSA Weather Tech race at IMS, today’s race is a new event as the race expands to six hours instead of the 2 hour, 40 minute sprint race held in 2023.

Sebastien Bourdais won the pole yesterday afternoon in the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Hi s time of 1:14.592 worn the top starting spot by 0.22 seconds over Louis Delatraz in the number 40 Wayne Taylor/Andretti car.

Pole winners in the other three classes:

LMP2: Nick Boulle No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports It is Boulle’s first pole in IMSA

GTD Pro: Nicky Catsburg No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06.

GTD: Mikkel Grenier No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3.

The weather forecast calls for rain most of the day, It seems like rain ha followed me to major races all season, so this would be a fitting ending to my year. I will have a race wrapup tomorrow.

Sebring Test Concludes Aeroscreen Testing

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Photo: Pato O’Ward testing at Sebring today. Thanks to Vincent Anderson for the photo and his comments below:

On seeing the drivers in the cars: “The glove colors will be more important this year. mandatory white or neon gloves?”

He could see the drivers”More than i thought but less than last year. Pato’s white gloves were working the wheel today. his white gloves stood out.”

sebsebring

Sebastien Bourdais tries out the aeroscreen. Photo: Vincent Anderson

 

From Indycar:

Aeroscreen passes its final 2019 test
at Sebring International Raceway

SEBRING, Florida (November 5, 2019) – INDYCAR continued its Aeroscreen development program Tuesday at Sebring International Raceway with Arrow McLaren SP and Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan participating in the fourth and final test session of the year.

The conditions for the one-day test could only be described as ideal for testing the safety innovation, with the weather unseasonably hot and humid like the NTT IndyCar Series teams will face through the summer stretch and the track was predictably bumpy in replicating a street course.

Amid all that, the Aeroscreen, scheduled for its race debut at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13-15 in St. Petersburg, Fla., performed as designed once again.

“And we checked boxes with drivers who had not previously experienced the Aeroscreen,” said Bill Pappas, INDYCAR’s vice president of competition and engineering.

Four-time Indy car champion Sebastien Bourdais of Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan, Patricio O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP and Santino Ferrucci of Dale Coyne Racing, who utilized Bourdais’ car in for the session, were the latest group of NTT IndyCar Series drivers to have the opportunity to test the Aeroscreen.

The steamy Florida weather allowed for trying various driver cooling options and further validate the anti-fogging mechanism. Bourdais, who wears glasses, had no visibility issues in his first experience with the Aeroscreen. O’Ward, in his first on-track experience with Arrow McLaren SP, similarly adapted quickly to his new cockpit surroundings. Ferrucci had no issues while driving Bourdais’ car.

Pappas said INDYCAR and its suppliers are on schedule to deliver Aeroscreens to all full-season teams next month as preparation builds for Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The Aeroscreen was announced in May and developed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies in conjunction with INDYCAR.

Arrow McLaren SP and Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan became the fourth and fifth teams to work with the Aeroscreen. Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Autosport participated in tests last month that were held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Barber Motorsports Park and Richmond Raceway. Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing and Will Power of Team Penske took part in the test at IMS; Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport and Simon Pagenaud of Team Penske tested at Barber; and Josef Newgarden of Team Penske and Dixon handled Richmond.

These tests were designed to replicate the various conditions competitors will face during the 17-race season. IMS is the largest (2.5 miles) and fastest oval on the schedule while the .75-mile Richmond layout is the shortest of the five oval tracks. Barber Motorsports Park is a permanent road course like INDYCAR will use on seven occasions next year, and there will be five street-course races where Sebring-like bumps must be navigated.

In consultation with drivers, INDYCAR will offer standard cooling options at each venue in order to keep the playing field level.

“These will be areas with specific parts,” Pappas said. “Teams won’t be free to develop their own ductwork.”

Bourdais said the utilization of a helmet duct likely will be the best option for particularly hot days.

“It’s figuring out what’s the best (cooling) option,” he said. “But it’s nothing we can’t work through.

“In races, we drive through clouds of debris, particularly on speedways and superspeedways, so I think this is a massive step (in protection). It’s a much safer place for us IndyCar drivers – I think everyone is pleased with it.”

The drivers said it took very little time to get acclimated to it.

“You can barely tell the screen is there because it’s pretty clear,” O’Ward said. “Obviously, it’s a bit more enclosed, but you see everything you usually see. The eyes kind of look around the halo, so you don’t really notice it. Once you’re pushing, you don’t really see the Aeroscreen.”

Indycar Friday Long Beach Schedule and Some Notes

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LoveToday’s IndyCar schedule  forftye Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.   Eastern Time

1-1:45 pm Practice NBC Gold

5-5:45 pm Practice NBC Gold

Notes

Sebastien Bourdais will do the Long Beach double, also driving for Chip Ganassi Racing’ s Ford GTLM in the IMSA race. Bourdais drives the endurance races for the program. He replaced Joey Hand who is ill. I would like to see more drivers do things like this.

Kyle Kaiser will be at Long Beach, but not in Indycar. He will drive the Juncos DPi in the IMSA race. I have doubts we will see more Indycar entries from Juncos this year.

Michael Andretti has an “Indianapolis driver announcement at 3:30 pm Eastern today. My guess is it’s about an additional Indy Lights car for the Freedom 100.