Despite knowing that he is unlikely to maintain his impressive title-winning run in
Formula One this season, four-time Champ Car king
Sebastien Bourdais has admitted that he made the right decision to jump ship.
The Frenchman's comments are aided by hindsight of course, as he was unlikely to have been aware of the plans to merge Champ Car and the Indy Racing League for the 2008 season while weighing up his options for the coming season, but he figures that he is no worse off that had he remained with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing on the other side of the Atlantic.
“I'm even more convinced [F1] was the right thing for me to do," he told
Racer magazine, "I would not have been a contender in any way this year [in IndyCar].”
Although he has often advocated the unification of America's two disparate open-wheel categories, Bourdais insisted that the way the amalgamation came about had put any former Champ Car teams looking to compete on the back foot.
“We had all been waiting for it for a long time, but obviously didn't expect it 30 days before the start of a season,” he explained, “It's not a merger, it's the death of Champ Car and the IRL taking over - the schedules, cars, everything. It's the cars [IRL teams] have been running around with for five years, so what are the Champ Car teams going to be able to do? Nothing. They had no time to prepare over the winter, because the winter is over. It's a disaster for Champ Car teams.”
In the eyes of the Toro Rosso recruit, a new technical package - which has been mooted for 2010 - could be the only way CCWS converts will find themselves on a level playing field.
“Hopefully, they will change the cars quite quickly because, otherwise, it's going to a slow death for all the teams that try and make [the switch],” he insisted, “How do you find sponsors when you're running at the back? It doesn't matter if you're Newman/Haas or anybody else.
