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Sevilla FC Superleague Formula 2009

Former Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Bourdais, has now joined the Superleague Formula series, which combines two of the worlds most popular sports of motorsport with football.

The Frenchman will get his first outing this coming weekend in Estoril, Portugal, driving for the Spanish club FC Sevilla, and will contest the last three rounds of the series.

The SF series kicked-off in August 2008, with all the v12 single-seater cars featuring colours of some of the biggest football teams in the world.

The idea behind the global championship is to take the motor sport back to it’s roots, with driver skill and ability being the main emphasis as each of the 18 cars are identical.  The Superleague Formula has already gained the approval of the FIA, with one car representing a football team from around the world, and all drivers on an equal footing.

The fans can get closer to the action as they are welcomed into the paddock area, the rear of the garages and can also  get up close and personal to the driver and footballers.

The series has a unique Saturday qualifying format with the drivers being split into two groups, each of which will have a 15 minute qualifying session, with the four fastest cars of each session qualifying for the next stage.  These final eight are then put in a queue in the pit lane before being sent out on track in pairs.  After a warm-up lap, the cars are then released, one after the other and must keep their position until they have passed the start/finish line, where they will each have one flying/timed lap.  The fastest of each pair going forward to the semi-final, where the whole process starts again until the final two battle it out for pole position.

The pole sitter from Saturday will line-up at the front of the grid for the first race on Sunday, followed by the fastest drivers in the semi and quarter finals, with the grid positions outside the top eight being decided on qualifying times, the fastest on the side of the pole sitter and the slower on the other side.

In Race 2, the principle is along the same lines used in the British Touring Car Championship, a reverse grid, with the fastest driver of race one starting at the back of the grid.

Both races are timed at approximately 45 minutes, the equivalent to one half of a football match with points available for every driver on circuit.  The winner receives 50 points and even a non-finisher is awarded something, a non-starter however, collects no points.

All cars have to make a compulsary pit stop which can be made anytime after they have completed eight laps and before 20 laps have elapsed .

Here is a little clip of round 2 of the 2009 Superleague Formula from Belgium;