Zoom An impressive Melbourne debut for Bourdais

Starting a rookie season with an old car is always going to prove an uphill battle, but Sebastien Bourdais steered clear of trouble and on his Formula One debut was classified in seventh position - following an engine failure in the closing stages - and earned his first championship points with the Toro Rosso Ferrari team.

The Champ Car star looks back on his first races in the series as he prepares for the forthcoming British Grand Prix.

The start
"My season got underway with an average qualifying in Australia and then I had a super race up until two laps from the finish, but despite everything I have fond memories of it and it was a nice debut. After that we struggled a bit with some technical problems and I made some mistakes. We lacked a bit of competitivity until we got the new car. When that came, our potential was much higher but now I need to find what works for me with this car and I’m not quite there yet. But we continue to work hard in the hope that things will take a turn for the better."

Adapting to Formula One and the STR3
"It’s difficult to quantify how much one relies on one’s experience; in my case I don’t have that much experience of Formula 1 and the switch to the new car for Monaco did prove a bit problematic for me. Adding to that difficulty was that, very shortly after we ran it for the first time, we then had a new aero package, and with limited knowledge of the base car, this further complicated the situation in terms of understanding the car’s behaviour."

"Coming from being a front runner in Champ Cars to my current position in F1 has not been hard to deal with. I was not always winning races over there and the important thing is to feel you are doing a good job. Winning a race which everyone knows you are capable of winning and where you are even expected to win, is satisfying but you have just done your job. But to be in a car that everyone knows is not at the front of the pack and you manage to score points means you have done a good job and you have to take satisfaction from that, even if it’s different to winning."

Good times and the bad times
"When it goes well and you have something to smile about, that’s the time to be careful and when there are times when you have nothing to smile about, then you have to deal with it, but that’s not unique to Formula 1."

E.A. © CAPSIS International