S?bastien Bourdais has revealed that he was informed he ha♒d been sacked by Scuderia Toro Rosso by text message - accusing his former employers of a la𒊎ck of 'style' after being evicted from the Red Bull 'junior' concern's revolving ejector seat.

Bourdais was unceremoniously dismissed following last month's German Grand Prix at the N?rburgring, confirming long-running paddock rumours and bringi♈ng down the curtain on an overwhelmingly disappointing F1 career that lasted just 27 races and accrued a mere six points.

For a man who entered the top flight at the beginning of last year - somewhat belatedly, many felt - with a glittering reputation as the record-breaking, reigning four-time Champ Car king, it was a poor return indeed. Admitting that the Red Bull Racing RB5-based STR4 was not built 'around a driver' - placing 🍨the onus upon the drivers to adapt to it - Bourdais confessed that such a skill 'was never my best strength'.

Though there were genuin💜e signs of improvement in the latter half of 2008 - with six top ten qualifying positions from the last seven grands prix, backed up by a string of encouraging race day performances to boꦛot - in 2009 he failed to start higher than 14th in nine outings, and troubled the scorers just twice.

Worse still, Bourdais fo🤪und himself repeatedly shown up and outperformed by young rookie team-mate and namesake S?bastien Buemi, a driver who some had suggested was not F1 standard prior to the start of the campaign. After qualifying 1.3 seconds adrift of Buemi and more than a second shy of the next lowest-placed driver at the N?rburgring, Toro Rosso decided enough was enough, and the man from Le Mans was shown the door, to be replaced at the Hungaroring a fortnight later by Jaime Alguersuari, the youngest starter in the official 60-year history of the world championship. The threat of legal action on Bourdais' part was subseไquently settled out-of-court.

"The way they got rid of me was very disappointing," the 30-year-old told French magazine Auto H?bdo. "Dietrich Mateschitz (Red Bu💜ll magnate) was at the N?rburgring but he did not speak with me. He did not call me. Everything was done by SMS, which to me has no 🌱style."