Au Revoir, Sebastien?

Who should drive car no.11 in Budapest?


  • Total voters
    10

teabagyokel

#dejavu
Valued Member
Are we about to say au revoir to Sebastien Bourdais in F1? And if so, who should be replacing France's only driver in car no. [bg=#110044]11[/bg] in Budapest?

And who predicted that P.K. would survive longer than Seb B [1] in 2009?
 
You have to feel for Sébastien Bourdais
He reigned supreme in Champ Car and yet his results in F1 have been less than impressive, notwithstanding his car.

He was soundly beaten by Sebastian Vettel in 2007 and so far this year he has been matched or bettered by new boy Sébastien Buemi.

I'm not sure if he will be replaced for Hungary but he is surely on borrowed time.
Who would replace him though?
None of the names listed in the poll really stand out for me but I guess the favourites would have to be Brendon Hartley or Jaime Alguersuari who are the test/reserve drivers.
 
I've gone for Jamie unspellable because he seems the most likely candidate from those in the know.

It would be great to see Seb Loeb in the car. I don't think there is enough of drivers trying different series these days. Gone are the days when someone like Jim Clark could race F1 one week then BTCC and then have a run in the GB Rally.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing how Kimi gets on in Rally Finland.

Sorry, bit off topic. Back to matters in hand.

It looked briefly as if Seb Bourdais would start to make the breakthrough he deserved after saving his job towards the back end of last season however I think his chances have gone. I agree with TBY, no one thought that Jnr would out last him but that's F1.

Why do so many American drivers with an IRL/Cart background struggle in F1? If you take two drivers one with a background in F3 and an Indy champion it seems that the F3 guy is going to do better. Strange.
 
I think Seb's time is probably up. He needed to perform better this season - there's no shame in being beaten by Vettel, but Buemi is a rookie and wasn't even the best of an average crop in GP2 last year. So I'm not convinced that Buemi's a future superstar, by any means.

Why hasn't it worked out for Seb? Well, unlike previous ChampCar champions (Villeneuve, Zanardi, Montoya) he won his titles when many of the top teams - Ganassi, Penske, Green - had defected to the IRL. The only two really well-resourced teams were Newman-Haas, who he was driving for, and Forsythe, who had Paul Tracy, not the finest driver of his generation, nor the most subtle, and at that time already somewhat past his best. Nevertheless Timo Glock was in ChampCar at the same time, and it evidently didn't do him much harm.

Perhaps it's just a question of horses for courses? Everyone who saw Jan Magnussen in the junior ranks thought he would be a success in F1. Same goes for Antonio Pizzonia to a lesser extent. Sometimes a particular car or type of car doesn't suit a driver's style, and if they are unable or unwilling to modify their approach there's little that can be done. When they brought in the narrower track F1 cars with grooved tyres in 1998, Villeneuve and Hill struggled mightily to come to terms with the new handling balance (some might argue that they never adapted fully).

Still I'm surprised that Alguersuari seems to be the name in the frame to replace him. He came out on top of a very close battle in British F3 last season with fellow Red Bull Junior Brendon Hartley, Cambridge graduate Oliver Turvey (supported by the Racing Steps Foundation) and Sergio Perez (supported by Mexican telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim!).

This season however, in the Renault World Series he has generally been outpaced by team-mate Turvey. It's a big move up for him after only six months in a high-powered single-seater (particularly as his best result in the aforementioned high-powered car is a fifth place).
 
I expect Alguersuari is being mentioned purely because he has taken over the official test/reserve driver role from Brendan Hartley for the latter half of the year.

It would be a bit odd if Red Bull didn't go for either him or Hartley. After all that's what the test/reserve role is for, isn't it?
 
Wonder if DC fancies a go? For a few races at the start of the season wasn't he covering as RBRs test/reserve driver?
 
Yes, DC was the official test/reserve driver until the end of April until Hartley got his super licence.
 
Does that mean Oliver Turvey's dad was Kevin Turvey? (You'll have to Google it is I can't get onto Yout Ube at work to post a vid)
 
Are Toro Rosso going to break their 2 year Sebopoly on the drive? Or are they going to use their posterior Loeb to think this one through.
 
James Allen has written an interesting article about Toro Rosso, including why Jaime Alguersuari has landed the seat over other hopefuls.

James Allen said:
Jaime Alguersuari, the 19-year-old rookie who replaces Bourdais next week, is reputed to have a budget from Repsol of around €1 million per race for the first two races, money which will come in handy in Faenza if the Big Brother team is sucking up all the cash.
Full article: Why is Toro Rosso an ejector seat?
 
Jaime Alguersuari it is then.

I have a feeling he's going to have a tough time of it coming into F1 mid season in a car which seems to be dropping behind the rest and is failing to make it through to Q2.
 
All the best Spanish drivers start at Minardi :D

He'll have a tough time of it to begin with, but he can do his learning out of the public eye. If he gets onto Buemi's pace by the end of the season I think that will be enough.
 
I expect Brendon Hartley is feeling a bit peeved.

He was their test & reserve driver in 2008 and for the first half of this year and literally the day Jaime takes over the role he lands an F1 seat.
 
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