OCTOBER 27, 2005

Bourdais signs a new one-year deal

Sebastien Bourdais is staying in Champ Car next year with Newman Haas Racing. The Frenchman has won the last two Champ Car titles and is now aiming for a third consecutive win in 2006.

Sebastien Bourdais is staying in Champ Car next year with Newman Haas Racing. The Frenchman has won the last two Champ Car titles and is now aiming for a third consecutive win in 2006. If he achieves this he will be the first man since Ted Horn won the AAA Indycar titles in 1946-47-48 to win three in a row. Since then Jimmy Bryan, AJ Foyt, Joe Leonard, Tom Senva, Rick Mears and Bobby Rahal have all tried for three titles in a row and have all failed. Bourdais's problem is that unless an opportunity opens up for him in Formula 1 there is little left for him to do in open-wheeler racing as he has already won the Formula 3000 title and enjoyed complete dominance in Champ Cars.

Bourdais's main opposition next year is likely to come his Newman-Haas Racing team mate or team mates, as the team may expand to three cars next year.

Bourdais says that he hopes to find a way of testing for an F1 team in 2006 and then moving to F1 in 2007.