Webber: perfect time for Bourdais in F1

Bourdais, who is on course to win a fourth Champ Car title this year, is strongly tipped to join Red Bull-owned STR after several impressive performances in tests.

Webber described his old Formula 3000 rival as "solid" when autosport.com asked him how he thought Bourdais would get on if he races in F1.

And he added that the nature of the close competition that exists in F1 at the moment will help the Frenchman adapt to Grand Prix racing.

"The track record for American racers coming over this way shows it is pretty difficult," Webber said. "JPM (Juan Pablo Montoya) and Jacques [Villeneuve] are the only two recently to have been successful, and then you have to go back to Mario [Andretti].

"What is massively in his favour is that Sebastien did all the junior categories over here before the last step into F1. And he kept his foot in the door in Europe by doing Le Mans, which is not a bad thing.

"It's as close as F1 has ever been. Given how much the field has closed up with how the tyres are and so on, it's probably a bit easier to come in now than at any other time. There is less to get on top of, like a tyre war and things like that."

Webber and Bourdais raced against each other for two years in F3000 before the Australian graduated to F1 in 2002. Bourdais stayed in F3000 for a third season and won the title with Webber's former team, Super Nova.

But while Webber moved up the F1 ranks from Minardi to Jaguar to Williams, Bourdais was forced to head away from Europe to race in Champ Cars after failing to land a drive with Renault.

Webber added: "It's hard to say how he'll go, but I respect him. I respect him a lot."