Former Toro Rosso failure and multiple Champ Car title winner Sebastien Bourdais has admitted that he has stopped pursuing opportunities in Formula One, after leaving the sport midway through the 2009 season following an unsuccessful string of results.
Bourdais raced for Toro Rosso in 2008 and 2009, but was replaced for the Hungarian Grand Prix last August by Jaime Alguersuari after scoring just 6 points in 27 races for the team.
Since then, Bourdais has continued with his side project as a Peugeot sportscar driver, and has also joined in the willfully pointless fun of Superleague Formula.
But despite being linked to the odd drive since his departure, including the second seat at Renault over the pre-season this year, the Frenchman admits that he is unlikely to ever race in F1 again, while also blaming a need for personal sponsors as the reason he has failed to secure a move back to American open wheel racing.
"I am 31 years old," he whined to sports.fr in France, "I don't see how I could be back in a F1 cockpit, especially since it already did not go so well.
"If someone offers me a car, why not? But, personally, I have stopped chasing it."
He admitted that he had not enjoyed his time with the Toro Rosso team, suggesting that they had been looking for a driver who "shuts up and drives".
He added: "They did not decide the development of the car or the technical paths, so it was always going to end in the way it did. Now, I have no regrets, but I would have if I had not tried it."
He added that he had hoped the Renault team, which he claims did not approach him for a drive in 2010, would have retained the other recent French F1 'star' Romain Grosjean. Eventually, the French team opted for Vitaly Petrov, who brought money with him to the team.
"I know [Renault boss Eric Boullier] very well, he is a friend, and we didn't even talk about [a drive]," Bourdais admitted.
"I was hoping that Romain would be retained. There are many talented French drivers but our economy is such that it is difficult to find financial support. And, unfortunately, seats in F1 are rare and expensive."
Bourdais will return to Le Mans with Peugeot in 2010 after finishing second there last year. He is set to drive the #2 Peugeot 908 alongside fellow Frenchmen Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin.
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