Sebastien Bourdais believes he has a 50-50 chance of retaining his seat with Toro Rosso in 2009, as the Italian team ponders whether to match the Frenchman with Sebastien Buemi, who appears to have already got the gig. However, also in the frame are Takuma Sato and Bruno Senna, with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello also rumoured to be under consideration.

"For me it's more of a 50-50 chance," Bourdais told Italian website 422race.com, "so I'll keep on doing the best I can and see what happens."

Looking back on a difficult debut season in F1, the Frenchman said: "We started the season with the STR2B, which was a good car, but unreliable and not quick enough. So we started strong in Australia, but then everybody started to put some updates on their cars and we started to lack pace seriously.

"Then we finally got STR3 in Monaco. For the first two races it was very difficult, then we got the new aero package in Magny-Cours and we started to get knowledge with the car and obviously race after race it started to pay off and we started to become stronger and stronger without never really going back down."

While Bourdais had his moments, teammate Sebastian Vettel truly shone, most notably in Italy where he scored a sensational win. Despite being out-classed by the German sensation for much of the season, Bourdais insists that until the introduction of the new car the pair were evenly matched.

"We have a really good relationship and we push each other obviously," he said. "It was very balanced between the two of us up until we got the new car and then, when we got the new car, he became a lot happier with the balance of the car while I was struggling. Spa was really a one-off, it's been the first time since Magny-Cours that I was happy with the balance, I was feeling good in the car and I showed that I can do a good job."

Other than the new car, another key factor in Toro Rosso's extraordinary success this year has been former McLaren and Ferrari man Giorgio Ascanelli.

"It's very difficult to put it up to one guy, but obviously Giorgio is very experienced and he's really serious about the work. He's blowing a fresh wind in the team to lead everybody in the right direction. Everybody is working really hard and having a lot of fun. I guess that's the key of the success."

Bourdais has said that if he doesn't get the Toro Rosso drive he will return to the US, where he won four successive Champ Car titles between 2004 and 2007.