Sebastien Bourdais, who hasn't qualified any higher than fourteenth place this year, is currently sixteenth in the F1 World Championship standings after nine races, although his chances to shine have been compromised by the team's recent dramatic slump in form.

Bourdais (born 28 February 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 ChampCar 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. A fourth title followed in 2007.

Bourdais had 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 had been angling for a seat with Toro Rosso and has tested for them several times in 2007. Last year Bourdais, despite a promising grand prix debut in Australia when he ran as high as fourth before an engine failure put him out, was completely outshone by team mate Sebastien Vettel who also won the Italian Grand Prix and then went on to graduate to the senior Red Bull team for this season where he is now a major title contender. At the end of the year Bourdais had collected just four points compared to Vettel's 35 and finished 17th in the world championship, although he did suffer bad luck on several occasions.

Despite speculation that he would be dropped over the close season Bourdais was eventually reconfirmed by the team for 2009, and alongside inexperienced rookie driver Sebastien Buemi he was expected to assume the mantle of team leader. However Buemi has turned in the better performances so far, the Swiss youngster out qualifying his much more experienced team mate seven times out of the nine races contested already this year, and has three points to the Frenchman's two which he gained from eighth place finishes in Australia and Monaco. Bourdais, who hasn't qualified higher than fourteenth place this year, is currently sixteenth in the world championship standings, although his chances to shine have been compromised by the team's recent dramatic slump in form that has seen it fall to the back of the grid, even being outperformed by the perennial tail ender team Force India.