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#52459
From F1 Live:

Sebastien Bourdais says he is trying not to worry about his uncertain future on the Formula One grid.

The multiple Champ Car title winner joined the Grand Prix circus this year alongside highly rated Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Moreover, the future of his Faenza-based employer is very much in doubt, after Red Bull mogul Dietrich Mateschitz signalled he is looking to sell his 50 percent share.

But in interview with ITV, Frenchman Bourdais said he is trying to simply focus on 2008.

"Obviously if you start looking at this then you can get worried, so there are two attitudes to this.

"You can completely disregard it, which is pretty much the approach I choose to adopt - after all, we've only had eight races so we're not even mid-season yet," he said.

"I can't really say I feel that I've shown what I wanted to show this year so far.

"What happen will happen. If I get fired because of this or because of that then so be it.

"What's really important for me is that I give my best.
And I am giving my best, even if it's not paying off right now.

"But you can only influence so many parameters, so I will have no regrets, that's for sure. I'm doing the very best I can, and if it's not enough in some people's opinion then fine."

Bourdais said he hopes he can extend his Formula One career into 2009, when the sport switches back to slick tyres - with which he so dominated throughout his American career.

"Right now I'm focused on 2008. I can only hope I'll be able to show what I can do with a car that has slick tyres," he added.


Bourdais' first three or four races looked pretty good, but he seems to have gone off the boil slightly. That's been a little more obvious because Vettel has started to turn the screw after his pretty poor start to the year.
#52697
From F1 Live:

Bourdais on his season to date
''When it goes well and you have something to smile about''
01/07/08 15:07

Photo F1-Live.com

Starting a rookie season with an old car is always going to prove an uphill battle, but Sebastien Bourdais steered clear of trouble and on his Formula One debut was classified in seventh position - following an engine failure in the closing stages - and earned his first championship points with the Toro Rosso Ferrari team.

The Champ Car star looks back on his first races in the series as he prepares for the forthcoming British Grand Prix.

The start
"My season got underway with an average qualifying in Australia and then I had a super race up until two laps from the finish, but despite everything I have fond memories of it and it was a nice debut. After that we struggled a bit with some technical problems and I made some mistakes. We lacked a bit of competitivity until we got the new car. When that came, our potential was much higher but now I need to find what works for me with this car and I’m not quite there yet. But we continue to work hard in the hope that things will take a turn for the better."

Adapting to Formula One and the STR3
"It’s difficult to quantify how much one relies on one’s experience; in my case I don’t have that much experience of Formula 1 and the switch to the new car for Monaco did prove a bit problematic for me.
Adding to that difficulty was that, very shortly after we ran it for the first time, we then had a new aero package, and with limited knowledge of the base car, this further complicated the situation in terms of understanding the car’s behaviour."

"Coming from being a front runner in Champ Cars to my current position in F1 has not been hard to deal with. I was not always winning races over there and the important thing is to feel you are doing a good job. Winning a race which everyone knows you are capable of winning and where you are even expected to win, is satisfying but you have just done your job. But to be in a car that everyone knows is not at the front of the pack and you manage to score points means you have done a good job and you have to take satisfaction from that, even if it’s different to winning."

Good times and the bad times
"When it goes well and you have something to smile about, that’s the time to be careful and when there are times when you have nothing to smile about, then you have to deal with it, but that’s not unique to Formula 1."

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