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Bob PockrassNASCAR
INDIANAPOLIS — Sebastien Bourdais admitted he wasn’t sure how he would feel Monday when he entered Turn 2 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
It was nearly a year ago in Indianapolis 500 qualifying when Bourdais lost control of his car while going 232 mph and slammed into the wall in a nasty crash that broke his hip and pelvis.
While he has turned plenty of laps in an Indy car since then — returning 14 weeks later for the final three races of the 2017 season and winning the season opener at St. Petersburg — Bourdais spent Monday testing for the May 27 race in his first laps at the track that nearly ended his career.
« It was surprisingly not bad, » Bourdais said after laps of 221 mph in morning testing. « I didn’t know how I was going to react to it. The first time going through Turn 2 again, you don’t know if you’re going to get the flashes or whatnot. There really wasn’t anything like that.
« I was more conscious and trying to make sure you listen to every little sound and every little feel that you’ve got and make sure you don’t repeat the mistake. Right now, we’re still quite far from the limits, so I’m not too, too worried about it. »
The Frenchman made it a point not to avoid looking at the area where he crashed.
« You force yourself to try to work all the kinks, the mental bugs out of it, » Bourdais said. « Obviously, this is the perfect day to do that. … It’s a place where you have to be flat in race trim on your own to be able to even feel anything.
« You’ve got to work the kinks pretty quick. »
Monday was the first full-field test of the new IndyCar body for 2018, where the front wing has been reshaped and the side pods have been moved forward to create a more longneck shape. The engine covers are lower, and the bumper pods behind the rear wheel are gone. The redesign includes increased protection, with an extra 8 to 10 inches of crushable structure on the sides of the car.
« It doesn’t change the fact that you don’t want to ever hit at 220-plus, » Bourdais said. « But I think that crush structure would have probably saved my hip and my pelvis. Hats off to the team at IndyCar for doing what they’ve done.
« That’s the dangers of racing. You don’t know what you don’t know, and you always kind of react to bad accidents and try to get safety better. But there’s no such thing as a safe sport when you’re traveling at the speeds we’re traveling. You just have to be conscious of that. »
Testing continues Tuesday with rookies in the morning and drivers who have not competed recently in full-time competition, such as Danica Patrick, in the afternoon. Several drivers will return Wednesday for a manufacturer test.
http://www.espn.com/racing/story/_/id/23367355/sebastien-bourdais-practices-indianapolis-motor-speedway-first-massive-crash
