KV Racing Technology and KVSH Racing
The cast: Drivers – Sebastien Bourdais and Stefano Coletti. Chief engineers – Olivier Boisson (Bourdais), Matt Curry (Coletti).
Twitter: @BourdaisOnTrack, @stefanocoletti, @kvracing
The cars: Nos. 4 (Coletti) and 11 (Bourdais) Chevrolet
Snapshot: Bourdais turned 36 on Feb. 29 … Was born in Le Mans, France – home of one famous endurance race – and lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., with his wife and two children. … Co-drove to runner-up finish in Rolex 24 At Daytona in January after winning in 2014. … Enters third full season in Verizon IndyCar Series and second with KVSH Racing (Kevin Kalkhoven, Vasser and James Sullivan the principals). Vasser was the 1996 Champ Car champion. … Bourdais is a four-time Champ Car champion (2004, ’05, ’06, ’07) who has won 32 races in 131 Indy car starts, including Toronto in 2014. He ranks eighth on the all-time victory list. … Coletti, who turns 26 on April 6, was born in Monaco – another home of a famous race – and will compete in his first Verizon IndyCar Series season. … Coletti, who had eight victories (including one in 2011 GP2 Asia Series) in four seasons in the GP2 Series, finished sixth in the 2014 standings and fifth in the 2013 championship. In 2013, Coletti won the GP2 Series sprint race on the Monaco circuit to become the first Monegasque driver since Louis Chiron in 1931 to have won a race in his homeland.
The stats: Bourdais competed in the Firestone Fast three times in 2014, earning the Verizon P1 Award for Toronto1 and Mid-Ohio. The initial pole of the season was his first since Assen in 2007. … From late June (fourth place at Houston1) through early August (second place at Mid-Ohio), he posted four top-five finishes in the seven races. … Won at Toronto, which was his first victory since Mexico City in 2007. … Overall, recorded five top-five and seven top-10 finishes. … Led four races for total of 98 laps. … Was running at the finish in 15 of the 18 races.
The gist: Coletti posted the third-quickest lap time in the two-day test this week of the new Chevrolet and Honda aerodynamic bodywork on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park road course. Bourdais was sixth on the time sheet. … Coletti will make his second appearance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May. In 2006, he competed in two Formula BMW USA races on the road course, winning the second race after starting 10th and placing second in the other.
They said it: “I've always wanted to come race in the States, and in IndyCar,” Coletti said. “Everyone here at KV made it possible. All the people that works with me did it, too. (The Verizon IndyCar Series is) a great championship and the competition is very high. It’s a great opportunity to be on the same team as a driver like Sebastien Bourdais, who is very experienced, very quick and a nice person to work with. I couldn’t have asked for better for my rookie year. (I) look forward to an exciting year with the team."
Added Bourdais: “We had a really interesting 2014 season with a lot of promise, a lot of missed opportunities, some lack of performance on ovals due to basically some luck. I think we've really tried hard all winter to capitalize on all the data and all the knowledge we accumulated last year trying to understand the car better and make the whole package quicker. I think I'm back to my very best in IndyCar with a good team, good sponsors. Just really looking forward to getting started.”