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.