After dominating Champ Car in the United States for the last four years, Sebastien Bourdais will now put his talent on the line in Formula One.
During his title-winning seasons from 2004 through to last year, the incomparable Frenchman won 28 of 55 races, an astonishing 50% success rate in a series where such superiority is rare.
It was perhaps only a matter of time before Bourdais was afforded the chance he craved to prove himself in the pinnacle of open-wheel motorsport.
It has been a long six-year wait for Bourdais as he first tested in F1 with Arrows in 2002, although they were a team on the verge of bankruptcy at the time.
A test with Renault soon followed, but boss Flavio Briatore opted at the time to hand the test driver role to another Frenchman in Franck Montagny.
That led to 28-year-old Bourdais heading to America to seek his fame and fortune, and he did not look back.
Signing up with the Newman-Haas team, Bourdais gave a glimpse of what was to come when he became the first debutant since Nigel Mansell a decade earlier to put his car on pole.
Three race wins and a further four podium finishes followed, resulting in Bourdais finishing fourth overall in the standings and claiming the Rookie of the Year title.
For the following four years he took centre stage, but it was a drive in F1 he long craved.
However, for a man who has been used to winning races, titles and spraying champagne, Bourdais will have to get used to fighting for scraps next year.
A long-overdue run in F1 may beckon, but in joining Toro Rosso, Bourdais will have to exercise a tremendous amount of patience if he is to help the team improve drastically.
Source : www.sportinglife.com
