Formula 1 has long been skeptical about Champ Car drivers moving over to F1. Or should I say, U.S. open wheel racers moving over to F1? Despite Sebastien Bourdais's European upbringing and racing heritage, the skepticism was still there for him when it was announced last year that the four-time Champ Car champion would join Toro Rosso.
It was also considered a very brave thing for Sebastien to join one of the weakest teams. Bourdais's debut Formula 1 race in Melbourne was simply the best start by a former Indy racer in F1 since Jacques Villeneuve scored pole position and then finished second in his opening race at this same Australian Grand Prix in 1996. Bourdais would have finished the race in fourth but his engine blew out with two laps left to go. As a result, he was classified eighth, and then bumped up to seventh after Rubens Barrichello was disqualified for driving through a red light in the pit lane. That meant that Bourdais scored two points on his first Formula 1 race, and in a car that would be considered lucky to score points at any time in the season. It simply a sensational debut.
Alex Zanardi, the two-time CART winner, who many in American open-wheel racing considered at the time to be another Michael Schumacher, failed to score a single point in his return to F1 after CART, in 1999. And he was driving at the Williams team, where his teammate, Ralf Schumacher, scored plenty of points. Juan Pablo Montoya joined F1 in 2001 as yet another of the greatest CART racers of all time - won the title and the Indy 500 - and he signed with the Williams team. His first race also at Australia was a mess, and he failed to complete the race and was not classified. He did not score his first points until the fifth race of the season.
Cristiano Da Matta, another CART champion, joined F1 in 2003 at the Toyota team. He spun out of his first race and he did not score points until his fifth race either.
While it is true that Bourdais has always been slightly slower than his new teammate at Toro Rosso, the young Sebastien Vettel - who crashed out of the race on Sunday - it should not be forgotten that Vettel also had a slightly slow start last year at Toro Rosso, frequently turning slower laps than his teammate, Tonio Liuzzi. Interestingly, Bourdais's F1 debut score of two points equals that of Vettel himself, who debuted at the U.S. Grand Prix last year and finished seventh - but he did that in a strong BMW Sauber, not a weak Toro Rosso.
Still, Bourdais had a right to feel let down after losing out on that fourth place:
"It’s not the first time I’ve experienced disappointment in racing and it won’t be the last, but what is important is that the team has worked really well, reacting very quickly, getting me into pit lane as soon as the lights went off for the second safety car," he said. "It was a great call. From then on I was good to go in terms of fuel and others ahead still had to stop. It was very tough as I was under a lot of pressure from behind, first from a BMW and then it was Fernando and Kovalainen. At one stage, I decided to back off a bit, but I found I was making a few mistakes, so I pushed harder and pulled out a bit of a gap. I hardly dared look at the pit board, but I knew it was nearly the end of the race. At the start I was down the order and running quite heavy and I was struggling a bit. But then I got the hang of things and after the restart my radio did not work for a moment, so I was caught out by the green light. But to come from almost last to fourth was an excellent start. I hope we get two points and in a first grand prix, that’s not too bad!”
Bourdais said all of that before knowing whether or not he'd get the two points - which he did.
Gerhard Berger, the team director and part owner, was obviously delighted as well, since he chose Bourdais to join the team, and he has had to fight off some of the skepticism. “Bourdais proved all through the weekend that he was the right choice to put alongside Vettel," he said. "He was a bit unlucky in qualifying, but he had a fantastic race, fighting with the best he managed to keep his position even towards the end on old tyres. He made no mistakes, reading the race in the right way from beginning to end."
