Erik

Bourdais was fired/let go as of today with Toro Rosso. How big of a difference is there in the very best of Cart and even the very average of F1 ?. For years I thought that they should give Bourdais a shot in F1, since he was so dominant in Cart, but it was a complete failure. The same a few years ago I think with Zanardi, who was dominating here, and turned out to be less then average in F1. Of course the list is much longer. What makes the European training grounds so much better then open wheel in the US ?

Flying Finn

Better beer...

ilko

I think he's a capable driver. Driving the 908 to 2nd place in P1 at Le Mans this year he showed plenty of talent and skill. F1 takes a particular kind of driver. You can be very good and still not do well in F1. Then again I don't think F1 is the be all end all of motorsports. It's just a very different series unlike anything else.

trumperZ06

SeaBass was a little late in arriving in Formula One.

If memory serves... you can blame Fabio Briatore for that... as Sebastien wouldn't sign an indentured servitude contract with him, so was essentially "Black-Balled".

One wonders if SeaBass would have done better in F-1 when he was a youngster.

ew928

BBC commentators did say that Bourdais may have picked up certain habits in racing that could not be unlearned enough for F1.


Was hoping for 4 eyes to have gotten somewhere. And not be the 'Laterne Rouge'.

Good luck to him wherever he drives next. At least he'll probably have a drive in Le Mans.
ALMS probably don't got fat enough paycheck for him.

Deanriffs

Maybe it's not that Europe is a better training ground, but that more talented athletes go into motorsports there than in the U.S. F1 is much higher profile in Europe than open wheel in the U.S. and the pay much better, etc., so it could be kind of like what happened to the baseball talent pool when the NBA became more popular in the States.

A.Wayne

Yes better Beer

Seabass was predicted failure , said so 3 yrs ago , now where are the seabass ***** washer that were so vocal 2 yrs ago


Hmmm fired like Scott Speed ..... at least speed was beating his teammate


Ahhh to know everything Burdensome, tsk ,tsk .........

dp35

Wait a minute, you left out a couple names, like Villeneuve and Montoya. I'd say they had above average F1 careers.

And to be fair to Bordais, we should remember his best F1 performances along with the most recent/worst. Last year, when the STR's were virtually identical to the Red Bull cars, Bordais was regularly in the points, and challenged his highly talented teamate. Last year the STR team beat the RB team in points, and Bordais did his share. Last year in Japan Bordais was racing Massa straight up, late in the race, when they tangled.

This year, the STR's were never equal to the RB cars. Although Bordais was outperformed by his teammate, both STR cars were always at the back. Bordais was under the threat of being fired by STR this entire season, which does not help in F1 where confidence is so important.

I'm not a Bordais fanboy. I just think he deserves some credit for what he did in F1, and does not deserve to be called a "complete failure".

StoogeMoe

Have they named a replacement?

ew928

Max Mosley?
Wrong thread.

Didn't someone say they've got 2 talented F2 hotshoes from the Red Bull stable ready to pounce.

500

I've recently started reading Joe Saward's blog. I find it quite good. In his most recent post, he reprints an analysis of Bourdais that he did for an online mag. I found it informative (July 16 entry - top entry in the blog at time of posting):

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

BostonDMD

Rumor has it is.........

Jaime Alguersuari.........19 y.o. spaniard.......

butzip

Let's not forget Michael Andretti's attempt....... Ouch. Clearly it's not just the series. If this was Louis Hamilton's first season, would you predict he was a World Champion driver??? I say we take F1's current worst driver GC Fisichella and give him to Penske or Ganassi and see what he does.

ilko

BBC was showing footage of him in the pits last weekend. He's learning the ropes.

Flying Finn

Yep, not official yet, but it will be him.
And don't forget, J.R. (Piquet) got the boot also so we'll have two new driver in Hungary. His replacement should be Romain Grosjean.