Dragon Racing
The cast: Drivers – Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Saavedra. Chief engineers – Neil Fife (Bourdais), Ed Nathman (Saavedra). Race strategists – Jay Penske and Neil Fife (Bourdais), Bharat Naran and Ed Nathman (Saavedra).
Twitter: @BourdaisOnTrack, @sebsaavedra, @DragonRacing
The cars: No. 7 Chevrolet-powered McAfee (Bourdais) and No. 6 TRUECar (Saavedra).
Snapshot: Sebastien Bourdais, the four-time Champ Car champion who is tied with Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy for seventh on the all-time victory list with 31, will hit 100 Indy car races in Race 1 at Detroit. … In 2010, Sebastian Saavedra was the first driver born in the 1990s to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the third from Colombia. He’ll celebrate his 23rd birthday June 2.
The stats: Bourdais made 11 starts last season with Dragon Racing (all but the Indianapolis 500 on road/street courses) with a best finish of fourth at Mid-Ohio. He’ll compete in all 19 races this season. … Qualified in the top 10 in four of his final five races, advancing to the Firestone Fast Six on three occasions. Had best qualifying of third at Sonoma. … Saavedra competed in three IZOD IndyCar Series events in 2012, with a best finish of 15th at Sonoma. He also competed in Firestone Indy Lights, finishing fourth in the championship standings for AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport. … He earned seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes, and started from the pole three times.
The gist: Dragon Racing expands to a full-season, two-car team for 2013 after Bourdais and Katherine Legge split events following the Indianapolis 500 when the team switched from Lotus to Chevrolet engines. Bourdais started building momentum toward the end of the season, which provided confidence for 2013 with the Chevy twin-turbocharged engine and second year of the Dallara chassis. Owned by Jay Penske, the team debuted in the IZOD IndyCar Series in the 2007 Indianapolis 500. It entered six races in ’08 and competed in the full season the next year.
They said it: “We set foundations last year,” Bourdais said. “We know what we have, and that's pretty strong. We went to Fontana testing in December and that went really well. The car was really good and fast and there really wasn't anything done to make it fast. I was really happy and that's kind of the way we came out of the season, feeling like there is a lot of potential. Hopefully we'll have better … I don't like to call it luck, but at least things not going against you. Every time there seemed to be something good coming last year it just fell apart.
“Stability and continuity should bring (Saavedra) what he needs to help his game. It's always good to have two strong drivers on the team who can feed off each other.”
Added Saavedra: “Getting to have Sebastien to work with and to push each other is going to be key. I have the motivation to beat him and, of course, he has the motivation not to be beaten by me. I think having in the back of my head a little bit of tranquility of knowing that I have a full season is also a key. In the past, only having one or two races it was a bit nerve-racking not to make mistakes. It was a lot of pressure. Right now, I have a lot of different kind of pressure. Pressure of a season, pressure of a championship, and that is where I’m going.”