The Next US Import

Come next season we will see a new face on the grid in the guise of Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais. For those of you not familiar with Bourdais a small refresher course. A former F3000 (now GP2) champion, he failed to find a contract in Formula One despite testing for Renault. Like Montoya before him, he made the jump to Champ Car where he has been extremely successful. Three titles already with a fourth on its way he has been the class of the field in recent years over in the States.

Bourdais will be an interesting one to watch. He's a long time out of the hot seat in terms of European competition. That been said, he's doing alright at the tests he ran with for Toro Rosso.

People will point to history been against him. Zanardi flopped. Da Matta wasn't much better and Montoya, despite winning races never delivered to the full expectation. Villeneuve was the last successful US racing export in recent times.

An advantage for Bourdais is that these days, Champ Car is all about road courses. None of that oval stuff that the others had a mix of in their experience.

Of course a point in his favour people will point out 'Hey, he's been the most successful Champ Car driver of recent times so he should do well.' We must remember that compared to the past, it's a substandard competition, so he shows up more. In recent years there has been a migration of the top drivers and teams to IRL leaving nothing more than a carcass of a series that was once top-notch. US racers make up the minority in the league and drivers with pre-dominantly European pedigree fill the ranks.

Will he, won't he. I think he has more of a chance than those who have tried recently. If Toro Rosso give him a decent platform to work with then he could buck the trend.