Threatened F1 lawsuit doesn’t feature Bernie, Max
Following up on today’s news that Sebastien Bourdais officially has been released by Toro Rosso, the French driver released a statement that he is sicking his lawyers on his now former team:
I am very disappointed and shocked by the decision taken by Scuderia Toro Rosso of not allowing me to drive for the Team until the end of the current season.
I consider that, in doing so, Scuderia Toro Rosso has breached its contractual duties towards me; also I believe that nothing in my behavior would legitimate a decision of the Team to terminate the contract. I think that the Team’s decision is in clear violation of Scuderia Toro Rosso’s obligations under the agreement. I have instructed my lawyers to review the situation including the possibility of issuing legal proceedings.
I am even more frustrated by the Team’s decision considering that the latter has been taken immediately before the Hungarian Grand Prix, where a new highly competitive racing package will be introduced by the Team in order to try and overcome its current difficulties. I am convinced that if I was given the chance to race with such new package I would have had the opportunity to achieve satisfactory results.
Finally, I would like to thank all my fans for their support. My motivation is intact and I’ll continue to be strongly committed to my Formula One project, for which I have renounced to my career in United States.
A few things worth noting: Le Seb is “disappointed and shocked,” not the F1B-approved “shocked and disappointed” by the turn of events. He also makes it pretty clear that he blames a lousy car with little updating so far for his poor performances. And, finally, he strongly puts to bed any thoughts he might be returning to the U.S.
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wonder if he should try for one of those USF1 seats? He’d be known in the US so that would always be an advantage…
But does Seb have enough experience in car development to join F1?
USF1, that is … as the experienced driver?
Why wold Le Seb need experience in car development if he is a driver ?
I suspect whoever goes to USf1 as a veteran driver would really need to be a good development guy as the other driver would be a youngster. Just my hunch.
Why? So he can help make the car faster? The driver is THE physical link the engineers have with the car. Telemetry can only tell them so much.
If you need an example of a Dev/Driver I point to Alonso. Also Schumacher. Wurz is another.
For the opposite I point to Hamilton. Great driver in a great car….SUCKS as a developer.
You HAVE to be able to tell the engineers what the car is doing and what a little change does to the car so THEY can understand…
wow how dumb can you be? as bad as it was with Scott Speed, RBR-F1 found him a home in there sister racing venture, RBR-NASCAR.
Bourdais is gunna find himself blackballed.
I think the bridge was burned a long time ago so the prospect of getting other Red Bull opportunities is probably lost. Time to call Peugeot. :)
I think a good comparison was one that James Allen made in his recent blog article that compared him to Cristiano de Matta (need we say Alex Zanardi?). He could just never catch up to the F1 cars and it may well have been too many years in Champ Cars that did him in which I tend to agree with. The only ones who have done well were Villenueve and Montoya and both of them only spent three years in CART at the time and of course CART was at it’s best with track challenges different engines/mfgs.
Sebastian just could not get the handle and the bottom line with Toro Rosso, they will alway favor their developmental driver program drivers over anything else.
James may be right. our man Paul Charsley made that point in podcast #116. Some people are just suited to certain cars. I think Le Seb is suited to sports cars to be honest. CART/CHAMP cars were also his cup of tea. Paul’s example was Nigel coming up through the ranks and how the F1 car just suited him best.
When he’s driving taxis, you all better remember who said it would happen first!
Part of the problem here is that STR have a driver development program – so they are always desperate to find those new boys a seat. The other part of the problem was that Bourdais had been a major media winner and some people cannot take the year or two or three away from that position (big fish, small pond syndrome). As for his futue, Peugeot has committed to the next three years at LeMans with him as a driver… that is a lesser $ career but can prove solid, long lasting and honorable. He deserves at least that as one of maybe 20 men worldwide who can even drive those F1 cars. Let’s not underestimate that difficulty – and in Q1 he was 5 times this year within 2 seconds of the starting grid. Last year Button never got that close.