Formula One news

Berger confident Bourdais will shine in Formula 1

Scuderia Toro Rosso team boss Gerhard Berger believes Sebastien Bourdais will fit perfectly with the Italian team in Formula 1 next season. The Champ Car champion will join the team in 2008 alongside Sebastian Vettel.

So far most drivers that came from Champ Car were unable to shine in Formula 1, but Berger believes Bourdais has what it takes to do well in F1. "When I see the last weekend (at Elkhart Lake) he was 1.5 seconds quicker on pole! At the end of the day he is fast. He has showed everything, every sign he has showed, that he should be quick," Berger told Autosport.

Berger furthermore explained his choice to sign Bourdais: "It was a bit early for Toro Rosso to get one of the quick guys like Alonso and Hamilton. And at the end of the day the driver is becoming more and more important, especially next year with traction control gone.

We thought it wise to look at a young one, but not just young ones, one with a bit of race experience. So we had to look at others, some of the others with potential, and not yet in F1. And the only one was Bourdais. I have looked at him for two years and I always asked myself, just how good is he? He did an excellent job in America, he won F3, F3000, he won three times Champ Car and he is leading this time, so theoretically there is potential. And I still it is fine to take the risk.

"Let's give him the chance, that is what we did in testing, and also in testing he did a good job for us, he worked well with the engineers, he was quick straightaway, he did not do any damage, he was very fit. Everything he did he showed his potential. We thought it could be a chance for us to get a really, really good driver."

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