The F1 and Indy 'nearly man' that found contentment in Japan

Almost any professional racing driver over the age of 30 or so would probably say that they have at least a couple of regrets in their career. But if there's anyone that would be justified in having them, it would be Honda SUPER GT racer Bertrand Baguette.

It's been seven years since he started racing in Japan, so European and American fans who are unfamiliar with SUPER GT would be forgiven for wondering what on earth happened to Baguette after a four-year stretch around a decade ago that saw him win the Formula Renault 3.5 title, the Le Mans 24 Hours in the LMP2 class and - very nearly - the Indianapolis 500.

In that time he also tested for two manufacturer-owned Formula 1 teams and the Peugeot LMP1 squad, but it wasn't until Satoru Nakajima signed him up for his first season in SUPER GT in late 2013 that the convivial Belgian could be said to have had much in the way of stability in his career.

For a driver that appeared to be on the cusp of the big-time more than once and suffered more than his fair share of setbacks, you might have expected just a tinge of remorse in his tone when invited to look back on his career. But it's testament to Baguette's character and good nature that he has "no regrets" about the F1, IndyCar and LMP1 chances that weren't to be.

His career appeared to be taking off when he won the Formula Renault 3.5 campaign in 2009. Up against the likes of future grand prix racers Charles Pic, Jaime Alguersuari (promoted to Toro Rosso in the middle of that campaign) and Brendon Hartley, as well as current Ferrari GT factory driver Miguel Molina and Formula E ace Oliver Turvey, third-year driver Baguette dominated in the second half of the year, winning five of the last eight races for Draco Racing and sealed the title with a round to spare.

After what Baguette calls a "dream season" in which he recorded top five finishes in all but three of the 17 races, the then-23-year-old was rewarded with his first F1 test by Renault at Jerez. It was just his bad luck that it followed the French manufacturer's decision to quit the championship, which precluded any real possibility of being considered for the race seat that ultimately went to Vitaly Petrov.

It was a similar story with the other team Baguette drove for two days later, BMW Sauber. While he was strongly linked with a reserve role with the soon-to-become independent Swiss squad, any deal was always going to hinge on bringing funding that he simply didn't have.

"It was more of a present for my championship than a real test," recalls Baguette of his F1 test bow. "I did one day of work for Renault, aero tests and some other stuff; I think I did more limited-speed laps than real pushing laps. I did about 10 laps [pushing] at the end of the day for myself, but I was completely destroyed because I'd already done 95 before and it was my first day in an F1 car.

"The timing was really bad; [Renault] had just been bought by Gravity, and they were not really interested in drivers" Bertrand Baguette

"And then on the last day [of the three days at Jerez] I had a real test with Sauber. Unfortunately, there was a gearbox problem in the morning, so we just had the afternoon, but that was a fantastic test. The speed was really positive. We had some talks with Sauber at the time about being a reserve driver, but they were struggling for money and it didn't happen. We had some talks as well about being an official [race] driver, but very early they asked for money and I had no money.

"There were no talks with Renault. The timing was really bad; they had just been bought by Gravity, and they were not really interested in drivers."

Baguette was left in a tough position as the weeks went by. Not only had the hoped-for F1 graduation failed to materialise, at one point it was looking like he might be left on the sidelines in 2010 entirely. That was until a change of management which drove Baguette into the arms of the Belgian national federation RACB - which helped him cobble together a drive for IndyCar minnow Conquest Racing, run by compatriot Eric Bachelart.

"The winter was quite difficult," he says. "I was putting a lot of hope into F1, but my management at the time was not the best. There were a lot of arguments and miscommunication. I was promised a lot of stuff and in the end nothing happened.

"It had got to February and I had nothing. I decided to switch management and I put my whole career into the hands of the RACB, which supports Belgian drivers in motorsport. We found a deal with Eric Bachelart, but it was a really late deal, so late that I missed the first two races [Sao Paulo and St. Petersburg].

"The budget we had was ridiculously low, but what Eric and the team did with that budget was really good. The chassis was really old, I think it was from 2003. My engineer [Todd Malloy, previously chief engineer for Paul Tracy's 2003 Champ Car title year] was really good, but in those conditions it's almost impossible to do a good result. It was a really tough year, but it was the only opportunity I had and I did my best."

In 15 starts, Baguette cracked the top 10 just once at Kentucky Speedway and ended the year 22nd in the standings, albeit only one point behind fellow rookie Takuma Sato in the standings. But his efforts hadn't gone unnoticed, as his tenacity with the underfunded Conquest outfit opened the door to a one-off drive for the Indy 500 in 2011 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

This was the race that, in the words of Baguette, very nearly "changed everything". Had he won it - as it he came so close to managing - a full-time IndyCar drive and a potential career racing in the States could have been the prize. Instead, he finished seventh as Malloy ran Dan Wheldon's Bryan Herta Autosports entry to glory, and Baguette never drove an Indycar again.

With 12 laps remaining Baguette swept by Danica Patrick, who was on the same strategy, approaching Turn 1 to take the lead. Once Patrick bailed out and pitted, Baguette was left with a three-second advantage over the fuel-saving Dario Franchitti, which became 10s with five laps to go.

But the caution flag that his and so many other strategies had been pinned upon never arrived, and he had to peel into the pits at the end of lap 197. Had JR Hildebrand put it in the barrier before then, instead of doing so at the last turn on the last lap to hand victory to Wheldon, the yellow would have flown and Baguette's name would have been immortalised as the winner of the centenary edition of the race.

As it was, what followed was another frustrating winter that once again threw up the right opportunity, just at the wrong time - this time with the Peugeot LMP1 team just as the French manufacturer was about to can its 908 project.

"I needed one yellow flag in the last 30 laps, which almost always happens," Baguette looks back. "Half of the field was on the same strategy as me: Dario, Marco [Andretti], Danica Patrick. I was P1 of the drivers who were on that strategy, so everything was looking good. Especially at that time, I was having a tough time to restart my career, and it was quite tough to accept.

"But even that race, finishing P7, opened a lot of doors and started a lot of discussions. Even with Bobby [Rahal], we tried to put something together. But I didn't have money. I nearly got a full-time drive; it was with AJ Foyt and it was Mike Conway who got the drive in the end.

"It was a difficult year, 2011, I only did three races - the Indy 500 and then two FIA GT1 rounds [in a Ford GT] for Marc VDS alongside Maxime Martin. I did a test for Peugeot at the end of the year [at Paul Ricard] which went quite well, but then Peugeot stopped everything... nothing went really well at that time."

Luckily for Baguette, an opportunity to race in the fledgling World Endurance Championship in 2012 came up in the end, albeit with privateer outfit OAK Racing. It was a disjointed campaign as he started the year in a Pescarolo-Judd LMP1 car, dropped down to LMP2 mid-season and ended up back in LMP1 with a Honda engine now in the back of the Pescarolo. Despite the disruption and lack of results, Baguette says he "learned so much" that year, as what he calls his "second career" began in earnest.

"I would be sad and frustrated to end my career in Japan without winning the championship. As long as I haven't won it, I want to continue trying" Bertrand Baguette

"Because we were a privateer LMP1 team, we did a lot of testing: we had to develop the chassis, the engine, also the tyres because we were the only ones on Dunlop tyres [as opposed to Michelins]," he reflects. "It was tough in terms of results, because we were fighting Audi, Toyota and Rebellion, but as a driver it was a fantastic experience.

"Before I'd only ever raced single-seaters, so it was my first time sharing a car with someone. I learned how to be a team-mate and an endurance racing driver."

That year paved the way for a full-time LMP2 campaign with OAK in 2013, the highlight of which came at Le Mans with Baguette piloting the Nissan-powered Morgan (essentially a rebranded Pescarolo) for the crucial final hours. He survived a late scare, spinning and nearly crashing in the rain while on slicks, but coaxed the car back and secured victory for himself and his team-mates, Ricardo Gonzalez and Martin Plowman.

Baguette rates the race as the second-best memory of his career after the famous Indy near-miss, but it was three races later at Fuji where his future career path would be set as he caught the eye of Japanese grand prix racing hero and SUPER GT team owner Satoru Nakajima. Baguette took pole, but although the race was cancelled because of heavy rain, he had made an impression.

"Nakajima-san was there and saw my name," recalls Baguette. "He was looking for someone to replace Ryo Michigami, who was retiring from GT500. Later, I was contacted by Nakajima Racing to do a test in Sepang with the GT500 car to see if I was a good fit. It was a four-day test, and on the first day I did four laps and that was good enough, apparently! At the end of that day we actually signed the contract for the year after.

"I spent five years in the Dunlop car, but it was difficult to do any results when you are the only car using the tyre. But they believed in me, and I tried to give back as much as I could. After a few years at Nakajima Racing I started to get stronger links with Honda and I switched to a Honda contract. Honda always told me that if I did a good job I could get a chance in a car capable of winning the championship and that was the ultimate target."

Very much the minnow in SUPER GT's four-way tyre war, Dunlop finally came good at the Suzuka 1000km in 2017, allowing Baguette and team-mate Kosuke Matsuura to take victory. Coming after three seasons that yielded only two top-five finishes, Baguette reckons this was the catalyst to be finally given a crack with one of Honda's Bridgestone squads, although the arrival of Jenson Button in 2018 meant he had to stay on Dunlops for one more year.

"Finally, in 2019 the opportunity came to race for a quick Honda, a car capable of winning the championship," he says.

After a promising but ultimately frustrating first year paired with Koudai Tsukakoshi at Real Racing, Baguette added two more wins to his tally in 2020, the duo leading the standings at the halfway point and finishing a strong third overall. The 35-year-old, whose opportunities to return home to his wife and young son in Belgium amid the current travel restrictions are severely limited, is adamant that he wants to stay in Japan at least until he's achieved his target of winning the title.

"I've had a good feeling since I started racing in Japan and even more so now that I have the full support of Honda," he says. "I would be sad and frustrated to end my career in Japan without winning the championship. As long as I haven't won it, I want to continue trying.

"The fact last year I spent five months [consecutively] in Japan and this year will be more or less the same, shows that I am ready to give everything to fight for the championship."

Having seemed half-a-step away from the big-time a decade ago, Baguette is content with his lot as a factory racer in Japan. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise; opportunities to race as a paid professional in both Europe and America have become rather scarce lately and chances for foreign drivers to prove themselves to the manufacturers in Japan are equally few and far between - Baguette is once again the only 'gaijin' on Honda's books this year. Would he approach his career differently if he could do it all again?

"My father was just a fan of motorsport and I started karting at 14 years old," Baguette replies. "We did everything together. We didn't know anybody in racing, we did it with our amateur eyes, we took decisions without knowing anything. We did mistakes.

"If I could go back, I would have done things differently which I think could have changed stuff in my career. I had some bad people around me, but since I was with the Federation things went much better. I wish they would have been involved earlier.

"But at the same time, I won World Series by Renault, I tested in F1, I nearly won the Indy 500, I won Le Mans and I am a professional driver for Honda in Japan... I'm proud of what I've achieved in my career, and I hope it's not finished and that I can achieve more."