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. 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.