Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (born 28 February 1979) is a French professional racing driver. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, having won 37 races. He won four successive championships under Champ Car World Series sanction from 2004 to 2007. Later he competed at the IndyCar Series from 2011 to 2021. He also entered 27 races in Formula One for the Toro Rosso team during and the start of . Bourdais has raced sports cars throughout his career, with spells at the Rolex Sports Car Series, American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, FIA World Endurance Championship, and currently the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He was a Peugeot Sport factory driver from 2007 to 2011, finishing runner-up three times at his home race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Frenchman was a Ford Performance factory driver from 2016 to 2019, winning the GTE-Pro class at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans. He became a Cadillac factory driver in 2022. Early years Karting Born into a racing family in Le Mans (his father Patrick raced in touring cars, hill climbs and sports cars), Bourdais began his racing career at age 10 in karts. During the early 1990s, he competed in a variety of karting championships, winning the Maine Bretagne League in 1991 and the Cadet France championship in 1993. Bourdais was part of the winning Sologne Karting team which won the 1996 24-hour Le Mans kart race at the Circuit Alain Prost on a Merlin chassis with Atomic motors. Junior formulae Bourdais progressed to single-seater racing in 1995, finishing 9th in the Formula Campus by Renault and Elf Championship. He then spent two years in the French Formula Renault Championship, ultimately finishing second in points in 1997 after winning four races and five pole positions. In 1998, he won five races to become Rookie of the Year (6th overall) in French F3. He won the series outright in 1999, with eight wins and three poles. Formula 3000 Following his success in the lower formulae, Bourdais joined the Prost Junior Team in the International F3000 Championship. He finished ninth in the series with one pole and a best finish of second. In 2001, Bourdais moved to the DAMS team in Formula 3000 and took his first win in the series at Silverstone. He changed teams again for 2002,