Bourdais to STR. Goodbye career
 

Sad to hear that Toro Rosso has managed to secure the services of Bourdais, he can pretty much kiss any hope of a decent drive away.

Well maybe he'll do well in the flugtaag

Meh...

He's a whiney punk that has had the best car and team for so long. Should be fun watching him learn to play with a backmarker like STR.

Not that I'm wishing failure on the little bitch... but what he did on the podium with Robert in Canada was a true indicator of his personality.

He'll be wishing he were back in CC before next season's over.

I think the hope is to get onto a better team in a year or two. Alonso started off at Minardi (which was renamed STR). Its all about how they finish compared to their teammate. If bordais can consistently post finishes of say 10th or 12th, while the other STR car is 20th, he'll start getting calls from mid level teams like Renault, BMW.

Its nearly impossible in these cars to make it very far up the grid unless you are really good. I dont think scott speed was really that bad but the str was so bad it compinsated for any skill scott had. I mean, ralf is not as good as michael, but he is not that bad and the toyota car is pathetic until only the last few races. No need to even mention rubens or jenson at honda. Both have a fair amount of skill, experience and success but look at them now.... The str and honda cars are total failures, end of story and they will destroy the career of any one in them.

I am sure he is getting a lot more money in F1. That, along with a ton more worldwide exposure, should treat him just fine. Lewis is an exception to the rule, most F1 drivers start out with the lesser teams (or as a testers) and move their way up.

true, but the management at STR is so much worse than any other team on the grid

He is a whiney little bitch but he's a damn good driver. I hope he does good in F1. That would reflect well for CC.

I doubt he'll ever move to one of the top teams just because of his age.

European press is reporting Speed is dumping F1, for a career, and trying to race with a top CART team. Liuzzi is chasing a better F1 team, but he too may try racing in North America if he can't get anything locked up for 2008.
I was rooting for Toro Rossio because of Speed. Now it is evident that it is truly a miss-managed team with volatile leaders at the very top.

This is not good news for CCWS. Regardless of your feelings for Bourdais, he is obviously a top notch driver and losing his name will be a blow to the series, which isn't exactly flourishing!

I actually think that if they put a marketable American driver into that car it could help the series. If Scott Speed, Grahn Rahal, Marco Andretti (Mario wants him in CCWS) or AJ Allmendinger (he'll be back in cart within 18 months) moved into that car and runs up front it could give that series a bigger boost than Frenchie ever could. It was a bigger loss when AJ left the series, I thought he might save the thing in 5 years.

and with Berger at the top level, you would have thought that he would know what not do say or do to a driver.

The irony here is that an F1 driver (Robert Doornbos) on a crappy team (Mindardi, Red Bull) left F1 for CCWS and it now contending for that championship while the reigning CCWS champion is leaving CC for a crappy F1 team (Red Bull STR)

^ yeah, but Midland was a REALLY crappy team with no real hope of getting better. STR has a chance to improve, but won't because they are managed by monkeys (no offense MazdaMonkey :) )

Hey, I agree 100%. But I don't see any top notch American drivers headed to that series anytime soon. As much as I hate to admit it, NASCAR has taken the best of the open wheel racers such as Tony Stewart, Robbie Gordon, etc...and left CC a series made up of about 3-4 drivers and 12-13 seat fillers.

Scott Speed to Nascar
 

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/070814163710.shtml

Just when I was hoping that he might save Champ Car

Funny that wins in the world's most competitive open wheel series' have been reduced to cv filler for drivers on their way to the big money show:
Allmendinger (CART winner, Atlantics Champ & Red Bull's 1st choice to take to F1)
Montoya (F1 winner, CART Champ, Indy 500 Champ, F3000 champ [aka gp2])
Speed (F1 reg, gp2 standout)
...next up
Hornish? (Indy Champ, IRL Champ)
Villenueve?

There's been talk for years about the 2 open wheel racing series in the US needing to come togeather in order to improve the show/ offer more seats for upcomming talented drivers and American drivers. This is just for owr to stay relevant in this NASCAR'ized country. I think that Bernie and his FIA cronies have a vested interest in that fight and they've yet to realize it.:icon_no2:

Oh dear god I hope that isn't true.
Watching Montoya almost get in a fight at Watkin's Glen this weekend was entertaining though.

I wish Hampson would take his whiney ass with him...