Without golf, Bourdais can focus on winning more races

His golf game isn’t the same, but Sebastien Bourdais rationalizes that’s a reality he can accept.

The 39-year-old Frenchman can still drive, and that’s what matters to the four-time Indy car champion as he returns for his Verizon IndyCar Series season-opening home race this weekend, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Bourdais, who lives in the Florida city on Tampa Bay, won this race last year and was leading the points after three 2017 races before being taken out at Phoenix, suffering an engine failure in the INDYCAR Grand Prix and then enduring a memorable, horrific crash during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.

He suffered multiple fractures to his pelvis and broke his right hip, from which he recovered to make the last three starts after missing nine races. The lingering effects of those injuries are what’s messing with his golf game, for whatever that’s worth.

“It’s always going to be a part of my story. You can’t rewrite the past,” Bourdais said. “Do I feel like nothing has ever happened? No. Is it ever going to be that way? I don’t know. Inside the car, it’s never really affected me in any kind of way. It’s not a worry. But I can’t play golf. That sucks. It hurts. I don’t do it anymore.

“If it’s the only thing I can’t do, so be it. If you feel like you’re going to twitch when you swing, then you’re going to do something wrong. That’s what happened. I do three holes and I start shanking stuff. It’s a shame, but if that’s the worst thing to come out of this, then alright.”

His boss isn’t concerned.

“He’s a racer,” team co-owner Dale Coyne said. “He’s back for sure.”

Bourdais, whose 36 career wins rank sixth on the all-time list, returns to Dale Coyne Racing with the addition of long-time friends Jimmy Vasser and James Sullivan as co-owners of the No. 18 Team Sealmaster Honda. Just like before, Bourdais is confident his team can contend with the series’ best – he proved that last year before the injury.

“St. Pete is my home race and it is an honor to represent the city during race weekend,” he said. “My first Indy car race was here in 2003 and I took the pole, but until last year I really didn’t have a lot of success. It took 15 years, and now I am the defending champion and that feels good. I don’t feel any additional pressure to do well, but it’s nice to be able to sleep in my own bed and have friends and family at the track.

“I am looking forward to the start of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season. I want to thank Dale Coyne, Jimmy Vasser and ‘Sulli’ for the opportunity to move forward with the program that Dale started a year ago with the support of Honda. I also want to thank Sealmaster and all of our sponsors for their support. This is a small team, but we have proven we can take poles and win races. However, I think we are now putting together what hopefully is a consistent program that can compete at the highest level and contend for a championship.”  

As teams adapt to a redesigned car with a new universal aero kit, Bourdais says there’s an opportunity to be more competitive against the super teams. The biggest question at the start of the season is how have the teams adjusted to a car with less downforce in the rear. Who will hit the ground running the quickest and who will be playing catch-up?

“You still have to beat three Penskes, two Ganassis and four Andrettis,” Bourdais said. “Ultimately, the top 10 is still already looking like a good challenge to get in. In the end, what’s really to remember with INDYCAR is last year we led the championship from the get-go until we had an engine failure after being taken out the race before.

“There’s a lot of things that can still happen in INDYCAR. That’s why people watch, that’s what’s exciting about it. There’s a lot of underdog stories being successful and opportunities. That’s why we’re pushing hard to give it our best shot because we know if we put all the pieces at the right place at the right time, although we are of small means, we can still be a factor and upset people. That’s what we lean towards and that’s what motivates us.”

Bourdais has won at least once race in each of the past four years. His highest finish in the Verizon IndyCar Series points has been 10th in 2014 and 2015 while driving for KVSH Racing – the disbanded team formerly co-owned by Vasser and Sullivan.

Never shy to offer an opinion, Bourdais says figuring out the new car is a challenge, but this is a guy who has never backed down from pushing to the limit.

“The car is definitely harder to set up because it’s doing more things earlier and we had gotten used to challenging the car immensely on entry and braking super late,” he said. “You’ve got to backtrack a little bit. You’re keeping your memories of how deep you can brake, but if you try to do that with 25 percent less downforce, you will overdrive the car.

“The whole point of the new aero kit was to race better. We can only hope that it materializes and we race like we used to in 2012, 2013 and 2014, which was close, good racing with passing opportunities. For me, that’s the one thing that matters most.”