Sebastien Bourdais and F1

[Hugh Jarce]

News on F1-live

CART: Bourdais claims second successive victory!

"French rookie Sebastien Bourdais earned his second Champ Car victory in a week"

Just a thought!

Alonso obviously looks 'set in', but how important do you think it would be for Renault to get a decent young French driver at some point in the near future?

If so, how do you think Bourdais could fit into the scheme of things?

Just interested in your view?

[Lee Janotta]

Ralf's seat at Williams.

[shiny side up!]

That's Lee's stock reply

[NiceGuyEddie]

He was tipped for the Arrows-drive post-Hungary 2002. Of course, it never came that far.

[Hugh Jarce]

I just wondered how big a deal it is for an engine manufacturer to have a native driver - if a top one is available.

Great PR I would have thought!

[x_dt]

IIRC Franck Montagny was chosen (over Bourdais) as Renault's second test driver.

[Hugh Jarce]

That's true - but it seems more quiet concerning Montagny! It may just be my impression.

[BD]

Bordais if very fast. He dominated F3000 last year. He seems to crack under pressure though. I think with some more experience and perhaps more maturity, he will be strong in F1.

[Snrub]

I've definately been surprised with some of the problems Bourdais has had. I guess we get so use to the ridiculous expectations on rookies and Bourdais has been so quick it's easy to forget how inexperienced he is. The decision to go to CART was definately the right one. He's able to make some mistakes without it ending his career and improve his racecraft. When a good ride opens up in F1 he'll be the top choice. From a marketing standpoint I think Hugh nailed it, he'd be invaluable to Renault.

Technically Bourdais unjustly won the last race, but we won't get into that here.

[Lee Janotta]

Originally posted by BD
Bordais if very fast. He dominated F3000 last year. He seems to crack under pressure though. I think with some more experience and perhaps more maturity, he will be strong in F1.

Enge beat him!

Mind you I'm growing fond of Bourdais, but Enge won that championship. Just because it's in an FIA press release doesn't make it true.

[kdr]

enge is THE MAN!

and he'll never get another chance in f1.

[corkholio]

Originally posted by x_dt
IIRC Franck Montagny was chosen (over Bourdais) as Renault's second test driver.

Wasn't it more like because Bourdais didn't want to deal with Briatore and pulled out instead?

The funny thing was that in F3000 last year it was Tiago Monteiro that had a Renault sticker on his Super Nova car and not Bourdais.

Might not be such a good deal at Renault for Montagny especially if he ends up being Alonso's b!tch.

[Joe Machado]

How about Bourdais replacing Pizzonia at Jaguar? That seems more likely than replacing Ralf at Williams or Truli at Renault. It would also be a way for him to "polish up" his skills before being employed by the so called big teams.

[BootsOntheSide]

Seb looks to be a superb talent, he has done really well in CART so far, with two wins, and he could've won two others but for rookie mistakes. More importantly, he has consistantly outpaced his team-mate, Bruno Junquiera, who has been tipped for F1 and started the season as title favourite. F1 in 2004 looks a good chance, although it'd be a shame for CART to lose another star so soon.

But where? He could end up replacing Trulli at Renault, as I'm sure there will be corporate pressure for he and Flavio to put their alleged differences aside. Maybe Jaguar will have a seat open. I doubt McLaren would hire him, they rarely go for rookies and may still be sore from Mi9chael Andretti. On the other hand, Williams have had great success hiring CART drivers, we all know that Sir Frank respects the series highly. He could be teamed with Montoya next year if Ralf goes, although Ralf has bgeen more on form in the last few rounds.

[gttouring]

a frenchman at the french team, especially with renault coming into power as they are seem right- Pugeot is not coming back soon so... Trulli hasn't shown mustard vs. Alonso so bourdais may be a consideration- perhaps a swap between Haas and Renault for their drivers for a season, it has happened before... Montoya anyone to ganassi.

[racer69]

How many teams would look at him?

The last driver was Montoya, who knew he was only going there to pass time prior to an F1 drive which he knew was coming. Before that there was Zanardi, but he'd been in F1 before.

Probably Villeneuve was the last driver who used America as his springboard to get into F1. The likes of Minnasian and Junqueria have tried to use CART to get to F1 from F3000 and it hasn't worked, i can't see it working with Bourdais, especially in CART's weaker field this year.

He probably deserves a go, it's just making an even bigger mockery of F3000 that another champion doesn't get a chance, but i can't see it happening.

[Jay]

Give Sebastien more time in Cart... There's a HUGE mental side to F1 that has nothing to do with driving talent. If they don't have this down they'll fail in F1. I'd like to see how Sebastien behaves between sessions, how he performs under pressure, etc etc. I guess you could say, I'm just not convinced on him yet.... hopefully that'll change.

[Bononi]

That can happen, as Renault would like to have a french driver to be champion - remember Prost - but if one has to leave, I guess it will be Trulli.

[corkholio]

If Renault is going to replace Trulli with a Frenchman it will be Montagny. Bourdais doesn't want to deal with Briatore, not the other way around.

[Dick Spanner]

I don't think it's necessarily the case for a manufacturer to be hung up on employing a native of their own country as a driver it depend's just as much on what market's they are trying to break into at the time.