Tracy: "Bourdais Was a Misery to Begin With!"

Sebastien Bourdais' forced departure from Formula One did not leave his former rivals speechless. After teenager Jaime Alguersuari – who was confirmed at Toro Rosso to fill out the free racing spot – told the Frenchman it was only his fault for losing his seat, yesterday it was time for former CART champion Paul Tracy to share us his thoughts on what happened to Bourdais.

The Canadian driver, known to be one of the most spectacular Indy racer in and off the track, insisted he was not at all surprised when hearing the news about Bourdais. The two had some battles to remember in the Champ Car World Series back when the Frenchman used to win consecutive titles in a row for Newman Haas Racing, and Tracy let it all go on his personal racer.com blog.

“The guy was a misery even when he had the best car and was winning everything, so I guess he's been pretty unbearable this last 18 months,” wrote the Canadian driver, referring to Bourdais.

The rivalry between the two drivers started back in 2006, during the Denver Grand Prix. When battling for second place, Tracy refused to slow down when going into the very last corner of the race and practically bumped into Bourdais' car. It cost both drivers a DNF, while Tracy was heavily penalized by the Champ Car officials and docked some additional points in the overall classification.

Back then, Bourdais was fighting Tracy's teammate A.J. Allmendinger for the Champ Car title, so the Frenchman demanded the series' officials to suspend the Canadian for the rest of the season. The two even had an altercation after the race, with Tracy inviting the NH Racing driver to take off his helmet and confront him. Bourdais refused, causing Tracy to call him a sissy (not literally, but his words were practically heading in that direction).

The incident started a long-time rivalry between the two drivers, although Tracy was never really in contention for the Champ Car title during the Bourdais era. There were several racing incidents involving the two throughout the upcoming races, with Tracy always crashing out of the race (and accusing Bourdais for Denver paybacks).