Bourdais: I want to do Champ Car proud.

good to hear!
allez seb!!

So Sebastien wants to do Champ Car proud,does he? Let's see....The last 3 drivers to step up from Champ(Indy)Car were......
Nigel Mansell-won a Grand Prix shortly after returning to Williams.
Jacques Villenueve-won several Grand Prix and 1 WDC.
Juan Pablo Montoya-again won several Grand Prix and maybe should've won the Championship in '03
Bourdais's got quite a bit to live up to to do Champ Car proud,don't you think?
Especially in a STR-Ferrari.
Extra exspecially when he's got a VERY fast team-mate(future World Champion, anyone?).

^ What about Christiano da Matta?

Those guys you listed came over during a different era, CART, before the Champ Car/IRL split, and I think everyone knows that being Champ Car champion isn't what it used to be, and so accordingly Bourdais can't be judged directly against them.

However, to win 4 times in a row against some strong drivers means he's been doing something right, and he deserves a go. As for STR, everyone knows they're not going to be comparable to the rocketship Villeneuve found himself in, so lets just wait and see how Seb does in comparison to his teammate, and other midfield runners before writing him off ey?

oh yeah, and Christiano de Matta ;) ;)

I believe that Montoya was in CART after the split, although CART was much stronger then than it has been for years. Villenueve was the last Indycar champ prior to the split.

You guys forgot Zanardi too. That may have been the worst Williams in the last 20 years though.

Oooh,oooh,oooh

Alex Zanar*******

Some very good comments here,US bred racing drivers have a difficult time these days in adapting to european style racing because of the reliance on the dreaded oval tracks, which have a completely different approach tactically, and also thy tend to stop running immediately track conditions change,accident or weather for instance.This means european training lends itself better to transfer to US as in say Justin Wilson for instance. A comparison with Sebs euro performance with Justins would be a fair benchmark this season

But Justin never set the world of F1 alight,did he? He really missed his chance when he couldn't translate the testing pace he showed in the Jaguar with Mark Webber into results at the races.

Should be a good battle between Le Seb and Das Seb,but i believe the German will have the upper hand.

^ Trevor, what do you mean? Seb has already proven himself in Europe, he won F3000 the year after Wilson, and was signed to the doomed Arrows team, and then close to landing the Renault F1 testing role which eventually went to Franck Montagny. This led him to look to the US, as he wasn't able to secure an F1 seat. He wasn't US bred at all!

How you can you say you want to do Champ Car Proud in one statement and in the next say there is no chance of winning a race and pretty much that there is little chance of even scoring a point. I guess he's got to put expectations so far at the very bottom that he's a success if he finishes one lap. Bourdais is merely in this for the money. He knows good and well the season will be a flop. But he'll make more money than Champ Car. I mean, lets get real.

I doubt that it is purely for the money. Are you even positive that he is earning more in F1? I am sure he beieves that if he does well he may get picked up by a more competitive team. Besides he probably has had a desire to race in F1 before he ever considered racing in champ car.

Hi Max Well, Good point about f3000 I'd forgotten about that,the main thing I was trying to say was the difference 4 years of US racing would have on a european trained driver and Seb's return after that period could make a difference to his possible performance this first season back,and that a good comparison would be Justins F1 record before he joined Seb over the pond