Bourdais delighted to get F1 chance

By the next afternoon he was being strapped in the A23 for a one-hour stint that would be the prelude to a full day's running in the Cosworth-powered car.

"The idea of the one-hour test was to give me an idea of how an F1 car works before getting in to do the full test," he said. "And it worked. As soon as I got in the car this morning I found my rhythm. The team was satisfied with what I was doing so we started checking electronic systems and working on the car."

Bourdais did 25 laps during his first brief run and 71 on his full test day. Towards the end of Friday's session, he was sent out with low fuel and told to go for a time. He responded with a lap of 1m13.22s, which was just over half a second off Heinz-Harald Frentzen's best from the previous day.

"I think a 13.2 is pretty good," he said. "I didn't make any mistakes. I'm really pleased to have got the chance to have driven a car like the Arrows."

Bourdais couldn't say if he'll be testing the car again this season, but now he's experienced what its like to drive an F1 car he knows he wants more.

"I think I need to concentrate on winning the F3000 championship before I think about racing an F1 car, but now we'll just have to see what happens."