Champ Car star and soon to be Formula One driver Sebastien Bourdais tried out Serpent\'s F180 formula car yesterday (Thursday) in Assen where he and his Newman Haas Lanigan Team are preparing for this weekend\'s second European Champ Car World Series encounter.

The reigning Champ Car Champion drove one of three F180s brought by Serpent to the 1:1 track which is situated in the north of Holland.

While light rain made the temporary r/c track, which was situated right in front of the Newman Haas Lanigan Team pitbox, tricky Bourdais proved to be a natural at the controls as he and his Crew Chief Pedro raced one another. Both were impressed with the handling and speed of the 1:8 scale car as well as the strenght of the parts as they made contact on a number of occassions!!

Some questioning by Serpent\'s Rob Kuyper revealed that Bourdais was not a total r/c novice, the Frenchman admitting afterwards that he had driven a 1:8 onroad car before at a local track in France, which too was a Serpent.

With so many Champ Car wins to his credit each of which has been celebrated by doing donuts in his McDonald\'s car, Bourdais could not resist checking out the F180\'s donuting capabilities. He was impressed!!

In return for a go at the controls of the F180, Serpent\'s Rob Kuyper and Stanley Bauer got a tour of the team\'s pitbox and had a chance to check out Sebastien\'s 1:1 scale Champ Car.

Serpent wish Sebastien and his team the best of luck at Assen this weekend and for the remainder of the Champ Car World Series. We also hope he has great fun with his Serpent F180 which we are sure he will have up to full speed in no time.

Sebastian Bourdais versus Michael Salven now that sounds interesting!!