The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac driver and team-mate Renger van der Zande have only mustered a single podium finish from the opening half of the season, with victory at Long Beach, and have five more rounds to make up a 208-point deficit on the points-leading Wayne Taylor Racing Acura of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor.
Mechanical woes at Daytona, Sebring and Laguna Seca left them unable to challenge, but Bourdais and van der Zande were also in contention for victory at Mid-Ohio until the Dutchman spun while battling Taylor for the lead.
While conceding that they will need others to drop points, the four-time IndyCar champion has taken pole for three of the five races held this season and believes that the team has the pace in hand to deliver results.
“It’s definitely not set the best way possible,” Bourdais told Autosport.
“But if we keep having the pace we’ve had so far, you can hope that the opposition will also run into its own problems at some point and you’re kind of done with it.
“Definitely we’ve had already at least one too many jokers.
“At this point it’s kind of like everything needs to fall into place for us to be in the fight at the end, which is not entirely under our control.
“But at this point it’s almost a moot point to even think about it, it’s basically ‘go and do the best job you can, have some fun behind the wheel, and make no mistakes’ and hope that it’s enough. That’s all you can really do.”
Bourdais also believes Ganassi is “still making big strides” in its second year running the Cadillac DPi-V.R.
Van der Zande and Kevin Magnussen drove a single-car entry last year before the team added a second car crewed by Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, who currently sit third in the standings after winning the Sebring 12 Hours with Neel Jani.
“We made big strides at Mid-Ohio,” explained Bourdais.
“We started off really bad and then made some significant progress to the point where an Acura track was maybe not so much of an Acura track any more, despite the fact that we were 25 kilos heavier than they were.
“That’s the cool thing about racing, when you think you’ve reached a dead-end or the maximum of whatever the car potential is, then there might be something left and that’s what you strive for to try and keep raising that bar.”
IndyCar return unlikely
This year marks the first time since 2010 that Bourdais has not had a seat in IndyCar, with the Frenchman committing fully to sportscars by running a parallel LMP2 programme for Vector Sport in the World Endurance Championship.
Asked by Autosport if he considers IndyCar a closed door now, Bourdais said: “Yeah, I mean pretty much.
“I was still hoping that there might be something this year towards the end of the season with maybe a third car programme kickstarting to help that going, but I think it’s pretty much all buried at this point.
“And then for the future, the Cadillac contract is pretty much exclusive, so it’s very unlikely going to open up any kind of doors.
“Yes, I think it’s pretty much [done], not so much by choice but just opportunities. Racing is a lot about that.”
