He's gone: Bourdais to switch from Champ to F1 in 2008

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. -- After a five-year detour, Sebastien Bourdais is finally going to get his shot at Formula One.

Bourdais, chasing an unprecedented fourth consecutive Champ Car World Series title, said Friday he will drive for Scuderia Toro Rosso in F1 next year.

"It's been a long time coming," he said. "I'm very satisfied that, finally, I'm going to get a shot at Formula One and also because (the team has) got some potential."

As the Frenchman drove his way up the European racing ladder as a youngster, the obvious goal was the globe-hopping international series. But, the F1 doors failed to open for Bourdais and he wound up heading instead for the United States, where he has become one of the best ever in American open-wheel racing.

The move to F1 may not be an easy transition for him now.

At 28, Bourdais is several years older than the usual F1 rookie. An example of that is his new teammate, 19-year-old Sebastian Vettel, who recently replaced Scott Speed, the only American driver in F1, at Toro Rosso.

Among them, Speed, newcomer Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi, the driver Bourdais will replace, have yet to score a point after 11 of 17 races this season for the bottom-of-the-grid Toro Rosso team.

Sebastien Bourdais has a shot at an unprecedented fourth straight Champ Car title in '07. (Getty Images)

That's a far cry from the elite Newman/Haas/Lanigan team that Bourdais has driven for since coming to the U.S. in 2003 after winning the FIA International F3000 championship the previous year.

The American team has seven championships and 101 race wins in CART and Champ Car, its successor. And Bourdais, who was rookie of the year in his only non-title season here, has 28 poles and 27 victories in 68 starts heading into Sunday's Generac Grand Prix at Road America.

"It's great that it's finally happening, but it's a little bittersweet on this end because I've got a lot of friends and a lot of great memories," Bourdais said as he relaxed in the team's transporter between practice and provisional qualifying.

"But, in the meantime, it's not over yet and we've got one more championship to try and go after, and we're definitely very focused on that."

Bourdais leads Dutch rookie Robert Doornbos, a test driver for Toro Rosso's sister team, Red Bull Racing, by just 10 points with six races remaining.

Bourdais isn't likely to be a factor in an F1 championship for at least a couple of years, and winning races could be equally elusive. But the opportunity was just too tempting to pass up.