Q&A With Gerhard Berger
Aug 30, 2008
Team Red Bull
Question: Gerhard, Sebastian Vettel has become the team’s leading light, in terms of results and media interest. How difficult is it for you to let him go?
Gerhard Berger: Well, of course the media interest is important, but what is more important is the performance of the team - Sebastian has helped us a lot to get the right atmosphere back. We had been really struggling with Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi last year, but he has proved what the team is able to do and has done it in a very nice way, with us, with the engineers, with everybody. That has pushed us such an immense step forward - it is really a pity to lose him. There is not a single soul in the team that is not sad to see him go at the end of the season. On the other hand we get so much from Red Bull. Without Red Bull, Toro Rosso would be nowhere, so it feels good that we can give something back, even if I would like to have him stay with the team.
Question: What about Sebastien Bourdais? It seems that he’s found the transition to Formula One racing quite difficult. Has this surprised you? You hired him because of his ‘champion mentality’…
Gerhard Berger: In Formula One you have to give someone half a year of time before you start to judge him. The half year is over and he is now in a situation where he has to prove his talents. I would not say that I already have a clear opinion on him, but I also have to say that Sebastian Vettel started a couple of races before and he performed very well in the first half year. So we will have to see how the second half goes for Sebastien Bourdais. And honestly I don’t want to be drawn into an expression of opinion at this very moment.
Question: Are you still improving the STR3?
Gerhard Berger: We are still working on the car and there are still six races to go, which makes me convinced that we are heading into a good season finale. There is one circuit that’s going to be difficult for us and that is Singapore - for downforce reasons - but the rest of the tracks should be fine for us, as we proved very clearly last week in Valencia.
Question: How is a small independent team like Toro Rosso dealing with the 2009 regulation changes?
Gerhard Berger: At a small team you just get on with the job because there is not much to do as there is not much influence that you have. There is simply not much you can do to turn it around. Just read what the regulations are and try to do it.
