Arguably no driver is as closely associated with the Ford-powered Lola B02/00 Champ Car chassis as Sebastien Bourdais. In its five seasons of competition, two of which as Champ Car became a de-facto single-make category following the disappearance of Reynard from the US open-wheel series by 2005, the Frenchman won three titles on the bounce and made Formula 1 realise what it had missed out on.
From 59 starts with the Lola, before it was replaced for 2007 by the Panoz DP01 in which Bourdais won his fourth and final Indycar title, he racked up 23 wins, 25 poles and 26 fastest laps. His 42 top-five finishes in a car that he picks out as his favourite underlines another key asset in Bourdais’s title-winning arsenal. He was incredibly consistent once settled into a Newman-Haas Racing team which had won the 2002 title with Cristiano da Matta before the Brazilian’s switch to F1 with Toyota.
