Sebastien Bourdais: Thought Processor

It's tempting to typecast Toro Rosso newcomer Sebastien Bourdais as a studious thinker. Guess what - that's just what he is. By STEVE COOPER

It's the end of the first day of Sebastien Bourdais' brand- new life. We're at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya for the opening day of the post-season test, and the Frenchman is on duty as a Formula 1 driver - at long last.

By the time the last few cars have dribbled back into the pitlane, the skies over Barcelona are already growing dark. There's a warm glow inside Red Bull's glass-fronted testing hospitality unit as a line of Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso mechanics snakes out of the door, queueing patiently for dinner.

On the motorhome's large plasma televisions, a DVD of cheesy Tom Cruise '80s flick Cocktail is playing for the benefit of the diners, and a grinning Sebastian Vettel is casually eyeing the screen as he gives more well-rehearsed answers to a group of huddled journalists. The German looks very much at home here - the youngster of Toro Rosso and now its poster boy after strong performances at both Fuji and Shanghai. He looks relaxed and fresh- faced as he discusses the day's work.

In the far corner, huddled with his back to the far wall, Bourdais sits discreetly. He's locked in conversation with a large group of French journalists, doubtless all keen to see how their new national talisman is adapting to life in F1. He looks tired - and bookish, courtesy of a pair of delicate red-framed spectacles perched on his nose. He looks less an F1 driver and more a student at the Sorbonne, inadvertently thrust into racing overalls. After talking with him, it turns out this isn't a wholly inaccurate conclusion.

"I haven't been getting a lot of sleep, that's for sure," he says of the tiredness, disarmingly reminding everyone that it's been non-stop since he departed Mexico, the scene of his final Champ Car victory and fourth successive title, just a day earlier.

Arriving in Europe on Monday, he travelled straight to the circuit for a final seat-fitting and a chat with his engineers, before taking to the track on Tuesday morning. Still jet-lagged and deprived of sleep, he seems a slight figure in a paddock full of big personalities.

Beginning our conversation with a casual opening gambit about how much it means for him to be in F1, it's clear that Bourdais is still somewhat dislocated, not yet tuned in to the moment. "I think the car still obviously needs quite a lot of work doing to it," he begins, not answering my question but instead reeling off a stream of consciousness that he knows will easily fill notebooks.

"We're just running pretty basic set-ups right now and doing a lot of systematic checks; downforce and aero- mapping. We haven't got into the details yet of adapting the car to my liking - but it's acceptable. It's not optimised but it's acceptable. I feel decent."

It wasn't the response I'd expected, but it was still a precise and detailed answer. As a bonus, he'd quickly got down to the nitty-gritty within moments of my first meeting him - honestly and openly evaluating his situation. It was slightly compartmentalised too - something we'll touch upon later - but it's the first sign that Bourdais is something of a sophisticated, analytical thinker; somebody who brings a fair deal of thought to his driving.

"It's sort of difficult to turn the page so quickly after my last race," he says. "But the fact is, I'm here, I'm testing and driving the car and I'm concentrated and focused on what I'm doing. Have I forgotten yet what I did before with Newman/Haas? No, and I don't think I'm ever going to forget about it. But you can keep your memories and still move on. And once my family moves back to Europe, the US chapter will be over. I think the move will probably finish it off."

Again, you see him compartmentalising things, completing one mental task before taking on another - it's all very neat and tidy. That applies to his driving too. Crowned Formula 3000 champion in 2002, a Le Mans 24 Hours stalwart by the age of 25, a four-time Champ Car title winner and now a Formula 1 driver, those numerous changes of discipline have been well accommodated by that multi-faceted racing brain.

It's a fact he readily admits. "I have compartments in my head," he says. "I have the F1 box, the Champ Car box, the prototype box, and everything stored up there. Everything's different, but you can share some of the disciplines - it just requires some adjustments."

Nonetheless, Formula 1 will require more fine-tuning than was necessary on the other side of the pond, bearing in mind that US single-seater culture is still widely perceived as being inferior to its European counterpart. Bourdais, like other Europeans before and after him, happily weathered the cultural tide when he arrived Stateside, but migration from the US to Europe has often been more difficult to achieve.

It's a fact not lost on Bourdais. "It's not a preconception, it's a fact that open-wheel racing in the States hasn't been as strong as it used to be," he says. "The competition has been divided - quite a few teams went to IRL and a few stayed in Champ Car and it doesn't make for as dense competition. But it's still very difficult to win and it's still a competitive series. The thing is, US racing has lost credibility in F1 teams' eyes - whether you like it or not.

"The best way to fight against that image is to be successful and to give the best of myself. And that's what I'm doing. Everybody in Champ Car wants me to do well because they want me to show that American drivers can do well anywhere in the world. I think they'd be pretty happy to see me being successful in Formula 1."

I ask him what he will miss most from the USA, expecting him to talk about the love for his team, the camaraderie, the numerous victories and championships, the exuberance of the knowledgeable and enthusiastic American fans. Instead his answer is somewhat odd. "The organisation in the States really facilitated everything," he says, somewhat abstractly. "You arrived in a city, all the airports are pretty much the same, you picked up your rental car and never got lost because everything was in grids.

"In Europe the tracks are in the middle of nowhere, you can't find your way around. You'd better Google Map the thing before you leave otherwise you'll never find the track, never find the hotel, and you'll probably get lost as soon as you leave the airport."

It's a fascinating and revealing answer - once again demonstrating there's a precision and order to his thinking. In many ways, F1 could be the perfect fit for Bourdais - it's as much a mental discipline as a physical one, and the sport's myriad technicalities could well satisfy his need for reason and order.

So it's still something of a surprise that it's taken so long for the 28- year-old to make it. He's followed a particularly circuitous route, watching flashes of promise disintegrate with tests for Arrows, just as the team began to fall apart, and Renault, where his refusal to sign a management deal with Flavio Briatore led to the Italian dismissively casting him aside.

But it was hard to keep a good man down, and Bourdais's lengthy audition for the Toro Rosso role began almost exactly a year ago when he first tested for the Italian team at Jerez last December.

At the time, Gerhard Berger conceded his team had been impressed by Bourdais and, while there was no room for 2007, there might be a possibility for '08. It seemed like another evasive soundbite from a non- committal team boss, but further tests followed at Paul Ricard and Spa-Francorchamps that allayed the doubters.

Bourdais had done enough to convince Red Bull that he was a worthy bet, and it took just a few weeks of negotiation before a deal was announced. "Everyone said Gerhard was talking bullshit," says Bourdais when he's reminded of Berger's initial vow a year ago. "But obviously he wasn't! It was all part of a plan - you don't jump into Formula 1 without a contract, so we put together some testing options. I knew it was best to do it this way."

And it would seem an opportune time to be joining the Faenza squad - just as Berger and team principal Franz Tost seem to have succeeded in wringing out the team's habitual 'Italianness' and instilled a much more Teutonic influence, as was witnessed by the progressive refinement of the STR02 chassis over the final handful of grands prix last season.

"This team has always been very solid and has regrouped well," says Bourdais, reflecting on the changes. "They have been working really hard and the whole performance of the package has been raised. For my part, I go into 2008 wanting to learn as much as I can. And because we're starting the new season with an update of the old car, we're going to have to work extremely hard over the winter to ensure we stay competitive.

"But we'll make the best of it and I think I can find the same level of comfort that I found in America. It's up to me to build a group up within the team, and it's very important we spend as much time together to feel comfortable and happy. That's what I managed to do in the States, and we all have a similar passion and share the same joy for motor racing, so I hope I can do the same here in Formula 1."