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IndyCar: Sebastien Bourdais out at Dale Coyne Racing

By Asher Fair

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 20: Sebastien Bourdais #18 of France and SealMaster Honda sits in his car during practice for the NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 20, 2019 in Monterey, California. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 20: Sebastien Bourdais #18 of France and SealMaster Honda sits in his car during practice for the NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 20, 2019 in Monterey, California. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /
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Sebastien Bourdais will not return to Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan for the 2020 IndyCar season after he was originally slated to.

After driving for Dale Coyne Racing on a part-time basis in the 2011 IndyCar season and then spending the next two seasons driving for Dragon Racing and then the next three seasons driving for KV Racing Technology/KVSH Racing, four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais returned to Dale Coyne Racing in the 2017 season.

The 40-year-old Frenchman returned to the team in the 2018 season via a partnership with Vasser-Sullivan behind the wheel of the #18 Honda, and he continued driving for the team through this partnership in 2019.

Bourdais was slated to return to the team again in the 2020 season. But now that will not happen as a result of a deal that fell through a few weeks ago.

Here is what team owner Dale Coyne had to say about Bourdais no longer being in the team’s driver lineup for next year, according to Motorsport.

"“Letting Sebastien go is sad and it’s got nothing to do with other drivers on the market or anything like that. It’s very unfortunate. It’s due to a funding issue. Something big fell through about two-and-a-half weeks ago.“We got the bad news just before we went testing with Sebastien at Sebring [with the new aeroscreen] on November 5. We broke it to everyone the night of that test. It was sad. It is sad. He’s a victim of circumstances that were largely out of our control.”"

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Dale Coyne Racing now do not have any drivers confirmed in their two-car full-time lineup for the 2020 season, although Coyne remains confident that Santino Ferrucci will return for a second season behind the wheel of the #19 Honda next year following an impressive rookie year in 2019.

Coyne previously stated that he was interested in signing James Hinchcliffe, who lost his ride with Arrow McLaren Racing SP despite supposedly having a contract to drive for the team in the 2020 season. But he confirmed that the release of Bourdais had nothing to do with this interest, nor did it have anything to do with his interest in any other free agents.

Bourdais won two races in his most recent three-year stint at Dale Coyne Racing, the 2017 and 2018 season openers on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. He missed nine races in the 2017 season due to injuries he suffered in a qualifying crash for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As a result, he competed in 42 races from 2017 to 2019.

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Who will drive for Dale Coyne Racing with Sebastien Bourdais not set to return to the team in the 2020 IndyCar season? Santino Ferrucci is still in position to continue driving the #19 Honda if that deal does not fall through, but the #18 Honda is suddenly one of the hottest seats if not the hottest seat on the market.