Bourdais keen on CART switch

Bourdais lost out to countryman Franck Montagny and Toyota F1 refugee Allan McNish in the race for the role vacated by Fernando Alonso, but after two successful CART tests with Newman-Haas, the Frenchman is keen to try his hand at racing in the US-based series.

"The team and I have worked well together," he said. "I think that for the moment a lot of drivers are very interested in CART. Half of the F3000 paddock attended the last few CART races so it is quite an attractive series. The level of driving is very high in CART. When you consider the example of Bruno [Junqueira] coming here from F3000 and doing well, I think it makes others take notice."

Both of Bourdais' tests with the 2002 championship winning team have been at Sebring, the second took place last week, and these have given him a real taste for the power and handling of the Lola.

"At the end of day, the team worked on a set-up that they wanted to try and we were able to improve the car," he said. "My first impression of the Champ Car when I drove it in December was really, really good. They fixed the worst conditions on the car so that they could evaluate my driving and my feedback. Overall, the Champ Car is a bigger version of my F3000 based on my feeling inside the car. It is heavier but more aggressive and powerful. We ran 2003 specs and the feeling was slightly different due to the intended power reduction but the performance of the car is very similar. With more time, I think I could have gotten very close to the lap time I ran in December."