Motorsport: F1

Bourdais lined up for STR drive

Struggling Toro Rosso is set to try out triple ChampCar title holder Sebastien Bourdais for the second time this season

Auto Express Car Reviews

19th May 2007

The US racing star has already had a trial with the Italian squad, and will join it again this week on a test at Paul Ricard in France.

Team chief Gerhard Berger is said to be keen to hire the Frenchman for next season. Meanwhile, the outfit’s torrid start to 2007 continued in Spain. It tried to boost the performance of its cars with some gearbox modifications, but they didn’t quite work out.

Scott Speed was prevented from setting a flying lap, and team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi (above) couldn’t take part in the second qualifying group. Technical director Giorgio Ascanelli revealed: “We tried to advance our performance as much as we could, with aggressive transmission changes. But we were a bit too ambitious.”

In the race, Speed retired after a high-speed blow-out, while Liuzzi
suffered a terminal hydraulic problem. “We had mechanical difficulties since Friday,” said Liuzzi. “It’s a shame, as many other cars had trouble, too; we could have made up more places, and I was already up to 12th when I retired.”