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The Frenchman believes the only hope for the Champ Car teams is if the IRL rapidly adopts a new technical package.

"Hopefully they will change the cars quite quickly because otherwise it's going to a slow death for all the teams that try and make (the switch) happen," Bourdais said. "How do you find sponsors when you're running at the back? It doesn't matter if you're Newman/Haas or anybody else.

"Newman/Haas is going to get it figured out somehow, but when you look at how badly Andretti Green struggled for two years to get to Penske and Ganassi's level -- and that was with their resources and four cars -- I think it's a bit more complicated than people seem to think. It's horrible.”

The way the merger deal came down made Bourdais all the happier that he was able to make the move to F1 this year, he said. "I'm even more convinced it (F1) was the right thing for me to do. I would not have been a contender in any way this year (in IndyCar)."

Bourdais said he wished Champ Car co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven had taken the merger decision sooner.

"I have a lot of respect for Kevin, but if it was not fun for him anymore and he was sick of losing money or wasting money then I think he could have figured it out at the end of last year, not 30 days before the first race," he said.

"(The merger) is very good for the sport; it’s just that it's going to cause a lot of trouble. A lot of people are going to lose jobs and it's going to take a long time to rebuild."