One step closer

By Andrew Cutler
July 17 2007

Sebastien Bourdais is now one step closer to realizing his long held dream of a seat in F1. The magazine Auto Motor und Sport is reporting that Scuderia Toro Rosso has recently taken out a contract "option" on the Champ Car ace's services for 2008, which is set to expire at the end of this month.

The Frenchman has helped his cause by running flawlessly in his most recent test with the squad from Faenza at Spa, Belgium last week, impressing team co-owner Gerhard Berger. "He has my support," Berger is quoted as saying. "Bourdais has done everything right, which is exactly what we expected of him. He has exactly the right attitude for the job." 

Bourdais also looks to have team principal Franz Tost in his corner. "He was as fast as our current drivers, and he made not a single mistake."

While this is good news for Sebastien, when taken with the current rumors surrounding BMW test driver Sebastien Vettel's future it does not bode well for STR's current drivers, Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi. Despite the potentially bleak prospects, Liuzzi has recently told reporters that he would welcome a chance to stay at STR for another year. "Projects for the future we still don't know, but I am happy to stay with Toro Rosso because I think the team is growing a lot. Red Bull overall is doing a great job but we have to make a faster car that can give us the chance to win races and move forward."

He also tried to put the publicly held image of him as a "party animal" to rest. "I try to avoid everything that could possibly distract me from my racing because my goal now is just to win races. For sure, like all young people, I like to party, but racing comes first and I am 100 per cent focused on that."