By Andrew Cutler
August 1 2007

The deadline for Scuderia Toro Rosso's option on the services of Champ Car ace Sebastien Bourdais is now expired. With the squad not yet having made any official statement of their intentions, the question becomes: what does this mean for the Frenchman's dreams of landing an F1 seat?

At age 28, Bourdais knows only too well that his chances at F1 are fading, but he still hasn't given up all hope. "We've been working really hard at it," he said. "It's a strange and complicated world, so we'll see what happens."

He's not yet ready to rule out the chance that STR may still give him a nod: "They announced Vettel today, I think that was probably enough to occupy them quite a bit, so all it says right now for us is that it doesn't mean it's not going to happen," Bourdais told reporters yesterday. "It means we don't only have a door open at Toro Rosso; now we can try to see if there are other opportunities."

Asked if there were other F1 teams expressing any interest in him, he replied; "No, not really. But at least now we can talk."

If his F1 dreams don't come to pass, Bourdais will start taking a hard look at his options elsewhere, saying that "it's time for me to move on" from Champ Car, where he has been the dominant driver of the past three seasons.

One option that he has carried on something of a "flirtation" with in the past is, of all things, NASCAR. After winning an IROC race at the Texas Motorspeedway oval in 2005 against the likes of NASCAR/oval racing "regulars" like Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and (IRL driver) Helio Castroneves, Bourdais contacted Martin to see if he could land a one-time drive in one of the Roush Racing (Martin's employer at the time) Fords. The deal never came togeather, "but I would have liked to have given it a try in a real stock car to see if I had what it takes".

With the annoncement this past weekend that his Champ Car team, Newman/Hass/Lanigan Racing, has begun to form a "partnership" with NASCAR's Robert Yates Racing, Bourdais prospects in the stock car series may have just increased.

It is an option that he seems willing to consider. If F1 doesn't come calling first.