For the past two seasons the French Grand Prix has been one of few European rounds of the championship without any home-grown talent on the grid. This year, however, the French fans will get the chance to be patriotic once more thanks to Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais.
A four-time Champ Car champion, Le Mans-born Bourdais has more than enough Gallic credentials to impress the grandstands at Magny-Cours, but can the 29 year-old really deliver in front of his home crowd?
It’s going to be tough. In terms of results, Toro Rosso, currently eighth in the championship, are far from frontrunners. Bourdais has qualified no higher than 15th on the grid and has scored just two of the team’s seven points - and those he was arguably lucky to get, given that his car didn’t actually make the finish, despite his seventh-place classification.
It’s all a far cry from his glory days as the king of Champ Cars. Of course, Bourdais didn’t expect to be challenging for Grand Prix wins in a Toro Rosso, but even he probably didn’t think his ‘rookie’ season would be quite this tough. Ever since he narrowly missed out to Fernando Alonso for a 2003 Renault race seat, Bourdais has wanted a Formula One drive. And in spite of his slow start, he’s not about to give up on his ambitions any time soon.
At least he won’t have to learn the circuit for his home event. Unlike some of the other venues on the Formula One calendar, he has raced at Magny-Cours before, albeit in Formula 3000. He tested the team’s French set-up in testing last week and qualifying at the rural circuit is always notoriously close, which may or may not be to his advantage. Plus there’s that element of je ne sais quoi that always comes with a partisan crowd willing you on. With Vettel on the ascendancy again after his difficult start to the season, Bourdais could really do with springing a surprise. Magny-Cours might just be the place to do it.
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