Scuderia Toro Rosso has announced that Sebastien Bourdais will drive for the team in the 2008 Formula 1 season, replacing Vitantonio Liuzzi and completing a total overhaul of the team's driver line-up. The 28 year old Frenchman will be free to join the team after the final round of this year’s Champ Car Series on 2 December. Currently leading the series with the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team, Bourdais has been champion for the past three years.

"It has been a long time coming, but here we are," said Bourdais yesterday, who has long been linked with the Italian team and has tested three times for them already this year, most recently at Spa-Francorchamps. "I would like to thank everyone at Red Bull for believing in me and giving me this long-awaited opportunity to race in Formula 1. I must also thank Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing for letting me pursue my dream and allowing me to test for Scuderia Toro Rosso a few times this year."

Bourdais' move to Toro Rosso completes the Faenza-based squad's all-new driver line-up, as just last week highly rated German youngster Sebastian Vettel replaced American Scott Speed in the #19 car with immediate effect. Speed had fallen out with the team after the recent European Grand Prix. Toro Rosso has failed to score a single point this year and team boss Gerhard Berger, who is co-owner along with Red Bull, has openly expressed his dissatisfaction with Speed and Liuzzi, both of whom have come up to F1 through the Red Bull 'staircase of talent', saying recently that he has "never experienced a pair of drivers such as ours."

Bourdais (born 28 Feb 1979) at Le Mans in France comes from a racing family. Like most drivers he built his career in the junior single-seater formulae, finishing second in French Formula Renault in 1995.
 

He graduated to the French F3 series the next year and finished his maiden season as the 'rookie of the year'. In 1999 he won the French F3 series title outright and also took part in his first Le Mans 24 Hours. A switch to International F3000 brought the title outright in 2002 (7 poles, 3 wins) after Tomas Enge failed a drugs test.

For 2003 he travelled across the Atlantic to join the Champ Car series and was signed by the race-winning Newman-Haas team. In his very first race he became the first rookie since Nigel Mansell to claim pole position at his first race. A slow first half of the season though gave way to a more rewarding closing stage and he eventually finished fourth, and with the 'Rookie of the Year' title in the bag. That promise immediately gave way to the title in 2004, followed by two more in 2005 and 2006, becoming the first driver since 1948 to win the Champ Car series three consecutive times. He leads the series this year by 10 points after 8 rounds.

Bourdais has always had one eye on graduating to F1; his first test at the wheel of a grand prix car came for Arrows in 2002, although talk of a race seat came to nothing after the team went bust. He was also linked for a time to the Renault team after a test for them. He has been angling for a seat with Toro Rosso and has tested for them several times this year already.