Bourdais frustrated by F1 snub

The Frenchman, who has won the Champ Car title twice in a row, says he is baffled by how the sport's leading teams have ignored him despite his success.

"I've tried knocking on F1's door for years, especially when I was in F3000," Bourdais told Autosprint. "Everyone in F1 knows my worth; however, I don't know why, no one has ever acknowledged that worth. Many ask me why, but I don't have an answer.

"Really, I don't know what else I could do. I had the chance of racing with Arrows, I had already signed the contract. After that there had been no more chances in F1, so I went to America.

"All of this is frustrating for me and I don't really know what else to say in reply to your question. Maybe I should become younger again..."

And although he would like to be able to race in Formula One, 27-year old Bourdais reckons it may be too late for him.

"[F1] is not something I think about all the time," he added. "Obviously, deep down I still hope to be able to get in F1, but I always stay focused on my current activity anyway, because by now I don't think things can change anymore.

"If there are new opportunities for 2007 - since everything is already planned for 2006 - I would be too old anyway."

Bourdais, who tested for the Arrows and Renault teams before moving to America, said he held talks with BMW motorsport chief Mario Theissen last year, but nothing came out of it.

"We had a long chat and it was an important meeting for me, which gave me a lot of satisfaction, since no F1 manager had taken interest in me for a very long time," he said. "In any case, at the time of our meeting the situation wasn't very clear with Villeneuve.

"So this time too there wasn't a real chance. Maybe I should have accepted a testing role for 2006 with the possibility of getting the race drive for 2007, but there was no guarantee and I couldn't take that risk. Probably that meeting didn't happen at the right time."