Bourdais: 2006 is my last chance for F1.

Double Champ Car World Series title winner Sebastien Bourdais has admitted that he fears next season will be his final chance to break into Formula One.

The Newman Haas Racing driver - who also won the 2002 F3000 title - secured back-to-back titles in 2005 with a dominant display in the American series as he fended off the challenge of team-mate Oriol Servia, Brit Justin Wilson and Canadian Paul Tracy to finish 60 points clear of anyone else but has still been overlooked as a possibility for a race seat in F1 for the new season.

With no F1 seat forthcoming, Bourdais will attempt to make it a hat-trick of Champ Car titles in 2006 although a clause in his contract with the Newman Haas team allows him to test for an F1 team if the chance comes along.

However the Frenchman admitted to the L'Equipe newspaper that time was running out on his F1 ambitions - with 2007 possibly the last chance he will have to make the step.

"I'll be 28," he said, "and you don't break into F1 when you're 30."

Bourdais had previously expressed a desire to test for the Renault team, with the French manufacturer having clinched both the drivers' and constructors' titles in 2005, but was critical of the team for its philosophy in F1 with Bourdais believing there is no desire on Renault's part to bring a French driver into the sport - test driver Frank Montagny having already departed for pastures new.

"I don't expect anything from Renault, they have done enough bad-mouthing about me," he said. "And [president] Patrick Faure's provocative comments on French drivers show they are looking for a reason to justify their policy not to recruit a French driver.

"I don't know the real reasons and, in the end, I don't really care. I just want them to leave me in peace. They should stop having fun demolishing all the French drivers. That's the most frustrating thing. They won in F1 this year and, sincerely, I say 'Bravo'. I also win and they should also say 'Bravo', even if they are not interested in working with me."

Should Bourdais secure his third title in 2006, he will become the first driver since Ted Horn in the 1940's to achieve the feat.