Q & A with Sebastien Bourdais

Q. How are you feeling about the start of the season?

Sebastien Bourdais: Ready or not it's coming, so it's time to stop talking about it and do it. There is a mix of emotions when you don't know what will happen, but this is my job and I've been around for long enough now. The only thing is that this is a new series and a new beginning but in the end it's the same, you get in the car and go.

I've worked for many years to get here and it's very satisfying to get a real shot at it. I can't say exactly what it will be like, but I've enjoyed the winter testing very much. We've done a lot of miles and gone as well as we could. Do I feel ready? I don't think you ever feel ready. It's like having a child, you never feel ready beforehand but when it happens you assume the role.

You don't often have the opportunity to do 7000km in a car before you go racing, so I feel quite good about that. I started testing Formula One cars in 2002 and it hasn't changed that much. I've driven sportscars many times too, and I think driving different cars helps me to adapt quicker.

Q. Did you think your chance to come to Formula One had passed?

SB: At the end of 2005 I thought if I made it to F1 it would be a big surprise. At the end of 2006 I thought it was over and I said so at the time. But a week after I said I thought it was over, the opportunity to test the Toro Rosso happened.

That's what F1 is all about, it's unexpected and unpredictable, and it's not up to you to decide whether you have an opportunity, you can only take the chance when it comes along.

Q. Have you had other opportunities to come to F1 before?

SB: The only real chance was in 2002 with Arrows, but that went away. It's difficult to have more than one opportunity because a new generation of drivers comes along and you're lucky if you get another chance. I got lucky and I'm finally there after many years.

The general health of open wheel racing in the states while I was there was not helping. I was just enjoying my time winning races and championships, and keeping in mind the opportunity that maybe there would be something in F1 at some point. But I was still very reserved with my expectations. I wasn't putting a lot of thought into F1, I was just waiting to see if it was ever going to happen and concentrating on doing my job.

Q. You were successful very quickly in Champ Car, do you think the same will be true in F1?

SB: In Champ Car I won the championship in my second season, and I could have been a contender in my first. But here it is a different game, nobody has the same equipment so you're not playing by the same rules. If you have a McLaren or Ferrari you have more chance of winning, if you don't then just scoring some points will feel like a win.

I haven't been winning my entire career. I've had drives that have not been good enough to win races before and sometimes to score a podium, or points, feels as satisfying as anything else. Whatever the car can do, if you exceed the expectations you've done awesome. If you have a winning car all you can do is win, you can't exceed what is expected.

Q. After so many years of winning, will it be frustrating not to be winning races?

SB: If the car deserves 12th place and you finish 8th, for me that's more satisfying than winning with a car that deserves to win anyway. I've been doing that for the last four seasons and now I have a different challenge. We're not going to win races and we're probably never going to win the championship with the team in their current status. But we want to build the team together, to get better, and hopefully to eventually be able to be a contender.

Q. How have you adapted to a car that feels very different to a Champ Car?

SB: This is thing I am happiest with, I know what I'm doing with the feel of the car. It's the other things that are new to me that I need to learn, like new circuits and the qualifying format. That's how people judge you, on how quickly you adapt and how well you do when you face new situations. I'll try not to disappoint anyone, including myself.

The toughest thing will be qualifying. It's a very difficult exercise to extract the performance on the first lap, one that I've never really been used to - even in karting you had two or three laps.

In the long runs I feel strong but for sure that one lap is critical because that dictates whether you're going to have a shitty weekend or a good weekend. I hope the more I run the better it's going to be, but for me it's still something I need to improve on. You can always improve somewhere.