EDMONTON, Alberta — The month of August can’t come fast enough for Sebastien Bourdais.
When the calendar turns, the 28-year-old Frenchman should have a better idea about whether he’ll finally have an opportunity to compete in Formula One. Scuderia Toro Rosso has an option on Bourdais that expires at the end of July.
Bourdais recently did a two-day test for Toro Rosso at Spa-Francorchamps that amounted to a full-scale audition for a 2008 race seat. At this weekend’s European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, STR co-owner Gerhard Berger and team principal Franz Tost publicly praised ‘Super Seb’s’ performance at the Spa test.
At Edmonton, the three-time Champ Car titlist put together another typically efficient victory — the 27th of his five-year U.S. career. But he tried to downplay talk of his potential move to F-1.
“It’s not black and white,” he said. “There are a lot of factors to consider, and I would be very happy to continue where I’m at.
“Obviously, I’m really happy that I got to drive a Formula One car at Spa,” he added. “So, if that was my last time in the car, it was a great memory to leave with.”
The smart money is betting that even though he is playing it down, Bourdais will indeed end up in F-1 next season at Toro Rosso — or a rebranded version of that team under the direction of Nicolas Todt.
Speculation in Europe has Todt (the son of Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt) acquiring STR from Red Bull magnate Dietrich Mateschitz and running it under the ART Grand Prix banner that has won the last two FIA GP2 championships with drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
Todt also happens to be Bourdais’s manager. He reportedly hopes to maintain technical links with Red Bull Technology to benefit from design director Adrian Newey’s expertise. Through the Todt connection, ART could also emerge with stronger links to Ferrari.
Clarification of the relationship between Formula One’s “works” and “second” teams will be a key factor influencing Bourdais’s decision to accept an F-1 offer — if it comes.
But not the only one.
Seb says it would be hard to walk away from one of the best open-wheel rides in America. On the other hand, the birth of his infant daughter, Emma, has him and his wife, Claire, longing to return to a European base, closer to the grandparents.
Mario Andretti, the 1978 world champion, has lobbied for Bourdais to get an F-1 opportunity for the last couple of years, and he hopes his time has finally come.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing that Sebastien is finally getting some attention,” Andretti commented at Edmonton. “Formula One, for a single-seat driver, is the ultimate test, no question about it. It has always been. And Sebastien deserves a good opportunity there.
“I think he has been overlooked and underrated in every way,” Mario said. “He is a very special talent and he has shown that over and over again.”
Andretti’s concern is that Bourdais’s team doesn’t measure up to his talent.
“That’s a question mark,” he admitted. “Toro Rosso could be one of the top-three teams next year, though they certainly haven’t shown it so far. But F-1 has had that problem for many years. Unless you go to one of the top-three teams, you have no chance to show that you can win. All you can do is show moments of brilliance with a secondary team and get noticed. Talent will always surface, will always come to the forefront.”
There’s no doubt that Bourdais has been the class of the depleted Champ Car field in the last few years. If he can make a smooth and successful transition into F-1 next year, it will give the series he is leaving a badly needed injection of international credibility.