That notwithstanding, the Frenchman – still a ‘rookie' despite being 29-years-old – is clearly eagerly anticipating the remainder of his maiden campaign in the top flight. He believes he is advancing well, even if he does admit that the Barcelona testing smash – potentially delaying the new car's debut, originally scheduled for Turkey in a fortnight's time – was a blip in his
F1 education.
“It was just one of those bad days when racing drivers make a mistake,” he candidly acknowledged. “It was not that I was going too fast, it was just that I made a stupid mistake, and when I realised it, it was already too late.
“In the end I felt quite lucky about it, though, as I didn't hurt myself. At first, when I saw the barrier approaching rapidly, I thought to myself, ‘this is not looking so good'! Looking back at it now it is a shame, as it meant a lot of extra work for the team.
“I was really sorry, but the team reacted very nicely. I was quite surprised about that. I knew exactly what not to do, but I made that mistake and that resulted in me wrecking the car pretty badly. It was a real shame, but that's racing.”
Reflecting on his progress to-date and what he sees ahead of him – with much speculation over
STR's future following
Red Bull drinks magnate Dietrich Mateschitz's confirmation that he intends to sell the Faenza-based concern off before the start of the 2010 season, when ‘customer' cars will effectively be outlawed by the impending new regulations – Bourdais is serene, and confident of taking further good steps forward over the upcoming weeks and months.
“[F1] is in-line with what I was expecting,” he mused. “[There have been] no big surprises, given that I did not know what to hope for. I think I have made some quite good progress in qualifying with better usage of the tyres, but it is a never-ending process.
