Never Say Never: Interview with Sebastien Bourdais

If there is one lesson that Sebastien Bourdais has learned in the last week, it's simply: never give up.

After capturing his third consecutive Champ Car crown this season, and being deafened by the silence of F1 teams not bothering to get on the phone and ask him about the future, Bourdais had reluctantly given up on ever making it into Grand Prix racing.

When French newspaper L'Equipe phoned him up a few weeks after the final round, as the biggest change in his life appeared to be the imminent birth of his first child, he was philosophical about F1 turning its back on him.

"I think it's over," said Bourdais about his F1 future. "It's frustrating, but there are loads of talented drivers who never went to F1...one can always say it's unfair but that's F1, and it's never been fair."

Things changed very quickly, though, in early December. Just as he and wife Claire got used to the arrival of baby Emma, Bourdais got a phone call from Nicolas Todt, who recently agreed to oversee the Frenchman's activities in F1.

Todt, who is a close friend of Toro Rosso owner Gerhard Berger, had succeeded in persuading the team to give Bourdais a test. It was an opportunity not to be missed and, despite having to leave his recently expanded family at such short notice, Bourdais flew to Europe to start what he hopes will be the next chapter of his career.

Sebastien Bourdais describes the handling to Nicolas Todt and Scott Speed © XPB/LAT

Having his seat fitting in the STR1 only the night before his first run, Bourdais gave no indication throughout the test that he had not driven F1 machinery since runs for Renault and Arrows in 2002.

On his first day at Jerez, his best lap was 1:22.521, about seven tenths slower than Vitantonio Liuzzi in the second STR. A day later and Bourdais was down to 1:21.539 - just two hundredths slower than Liuzzi. More importantly, that was almost a second faster than Scott Speed, who had also crashed heavily on one of his quick laps.

By the end of his final day, Bourdais had shaved a further three tenths of a second off his time, which in the end left him a couple of hundredths shy of Liuzzi, who had moved across to a Red Bull Racing car.

It is the kind of progress that teams love seeing, and it was no wonder that Berger said earlier this week that Bourdais was definitely in the frame for a race drive at his team in 2008.

At the end of it all, though, Bourdais remained with his feet very much on the ground. Yes, he had impressed those who had been following him closely (and both Berger and team principal Franz Tost had flown into the test to keep an eye on him), but then again that is exactly what Bourdais has been doing for three years in the United States.

"This week was just a case of continued experience," said Bourdais, who now heads back to America for what could well be his last year in Champ Car. "Obviously I had not been in an F1 car for a while and it was difficult when I drove one last time.

"But it was a great experience. The communication with the team was good, and it was very interesting. There were quite a few details to be checked with Bridgestone, so it was a proper working session.

"I was able to be part of the team. It was good that I could work with

them as soon as I was OK in the car, which was pretty much the first afternoon.

"That first morning I just got in the car, checked the seat fitted and all that. But by the afternoon I was pretty much up to speed, on old tyres. The final day was the first opportunity I had to get the best out of new tyres - but it wasn't easy.

"I only had three sets of tyres every day. With my first set on the first day I was figuring them out, on the second set I was completely out of balance because I had no idea how to get the best out of them. Then, on the third set, I made a mistake, so I looked pretty bad on the timing sheet.

Sebastien Bourdais tests the Toro Rosso at Jerez © XPB/LAT

"But eventually I was only a couple of tenths behind Tonio, so I was happy with that. We then started working things out and it was interesting. What was fascinating for me was the balance between aero and mechanical grip - it is so off balance.

"There is so much downforce, but so little grip. It is something that you don't see anywhere else. Almost any other car usually has low grip with low downforce, which is why they are so balanced. An F1 car back on slicks would be easier!"

Bourdais does not hide from the fact that he came to Jerez to impress. That was why he felt it important that his lap times showed what he was capable of, although he insists there was no specific benchmark that he was aiming for.

"Everything was set by the team," he said. "We never targeted a lap time and we were only allocated a certain number of tyres, so if we did a dedicated low fuel run then it would have been no good.

"The team also wanted to see the evolution throughout the three days, so we were able to test and find how consistent I could be in the long runs. It was all planned in advance.

"I experimented with the set-up until halfway through the second day, and then we went on to the test programme. Whether I liked the setting or not after that did not matter - it was not the purpose of the test. A real development was involved, and although in the past you could run as many tyres as you liked with low fuel, there was no time to do that here."

And what about Bourdais's physical side? How did the demands of an F1 car, especially the braking, compare with his more usual Champ Car mount?

"The only thing was the neck," he says. "I put some padding on the car as early as the first day because I did not want to take any chances. It was getting stiff already and I knew that I had three days ahead of me.

"The feeling was very different to the Champ Car. We don't have any quick tracks anymore, and I missed it a bit. We just don't work the neck, and the G-forces in the F1 car were super-high."

Plus, Bourdais admits, he had not had the best of preparations for his F1 time thanks to his daughter's arrival.

"Since the baby [was born], I have not slept much," he says. "I can't say I had any time to rest. The truth is I kind of gave up on F1, and then three days later I got a call. It was pretty clear the test was going to happen, but I had no time to work on the neck, and I knew I would be in trouble for that."

Whatever Bourdais felt like inside did not matter at the end of the week, though, because Berger for one was left impressed by what he had seen. The question now is where Bourdais and Toro Rosso go from here?

Sebastien Bourdais studies his data © XPB/LAT

Both clearly need to decide by the middle of next year if they want to do something together in the future. For his part, Bourdais clearly hopes he has done enough to convince the other party that he is worth the effort.

"I did my best to impress the team, and hopefully I did. If I did, then I will get my chance, and if they were not satisfied then there will be no follow-up on that. I grabbed the opportunity, and I am grateful to Toro Rosso.

"The team are going to analyse everything and then do a report - on both the positives and negatives. If there are more positives, then there will be a next time, but I cannot predict much on that.

"All I can say is that these cars are the fastest on the planet. They are a lot of fun to drive, but I will not have the power to choose if I race them or not. If it is meant to be, then it will happen."

But what about next year? Bourdais was fairly clear before the test that he had a contract with Newman-Haas in place and there was no talk of him reneging on it. Had his mind changed since he had gone so well?

"There is not even a question mark there," he says firmly. "I will not do that to Newman-Haas.

"The option to do something else ran out on September 15th, which was a long time ago. That is just the way it is. Sometimes the timing can be wrong for your career, but I also have to be respectful to the team who brought me to where I am today.

"I don't consider things like leaving Newman-Haas so late in the day. My name is on the books for next season, and there is no way out. In fact, once you sign for it then there is no need. You just don't do it.

"For me it is not even worth discussing - although hopefully it happens for 2008. I understand your questioning, as both [Toro Rosso] drivers are not yet confirmed and I wish if they were going to be replaced then it would be by me....but they deserve to carry on. Maybe I can join in in 2008, but that is way ahead. I'll just take it step by step."

For now, though, Bourdais will head back to the States for Christmas, new year and then testing of the new Panoz DP01.

"The Champ Car is still there in the back of my mind. It is the car I have been driving for the last four years, so I won't forget about it too easily. In the end I just switch modes - Champ Car mode, GT mode, F1 mode. They are all separate in my mind.

"There is no crossing over for me, and that is very valuable because I can embrace all these different experiences and adapt to new things more quickly. For me the F1 test has been a great education."

An education that could well be the future for Bourdais. It's something he will not give up on easily now.