JANUARY 13, 2009

Another door closes for Bourdais

Penske Racing has announced that Australian Will Power will join the team in place of Helio Castroneves for the pre-season testing and may stay on in 2009 if the Brazilian ends up being unable to race as a result of the findings of the court. Castroneves is facing serious tax evasion charges filed by the Inland Revenue Service.

The news means that for the moment at least Penske will have an all-Australian line-up with Ryan Briscoe in the other car.

The news means that Sebastien Bourdais has one fewer options open to him if he does not get another year with Scuderia Toro Rosso. The Faenza team seems to be waiting to see what happens with Honda Racing F1 with rumours suggesting that Red Bull would very much like to see Jenson Button in one of the cars, as he is very much a Red Bull style of driver. Bourdais may be the second choice, given that Red Bull has a massive amount of promotion going on in France at the moment having only been allowed into the French market last summer. The Austrian company supports Sebastien Loeb in the WRC but having Bourdais is not a bad idea given that he would provide technical continuity for the team.