The Pit Bull: Interview with Gerhard Berger

Will the Monaco Grand Prix be Scuderia Toro Rosso's best chance to score points in 2006? That's been the received wisdom since the V10 engine restrictions were first announced, because the overall lack of power will be less of a handicap, and more importantly the engine's torque characteristics should be well suited to the circuit. There are also two very hungry drivers in Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi, who are determined to make the most of the perceived opportunity.

The real picture will no doubt emerge over the weekend, and one man who's really looking forward to finding out how the cars perform is Gerhard Berger, co-owner of the team with Red Bull.

In his Ferrari days, the Austrian was the first major sportsman to be signed up by Dietrich Mateschitz to promote his new drink, and the pair have remained friends ever since. Nevertheless, it was something of a surprise when Berger's new role was announced, because it seemed that after leaving in 2003 his job as motorsport director at BMW, he was after an easier life.

The announcement mentioned that Berger's trucking business was an inherent part of the deal, and the thinking behind that becomes more obvious when you consider not only that there are a lot of cans of drink to be shipped around Europe, but that an army of vehicles is required to transport the famed paddock Energy Station and the 'tree houses' that form the offices for the Red Bull and Toro Rosso engineers. Berger is clearly not just a figurehead.

So at the age of 46, Berger has become a team owner with the minimum of fuss, and with the minimum of risk. Never one to like staying in one place for long, he's busy travelling the world once again, but this time he's also finding time to stay at home between the races.

Q: Are you enjoying your new life so far?

Berger: "Absolutely. I'm feeling good, and it's a great challenge. The most difficult thing for me is that even if we did a big step from, let's say, Minardi level to where we are, I spent all my F1 career life always in top teams with endless resources - McLaren, Ferrari, Benetton, BMW. Wherever you looked you had five people to think about something and prepare it. Here, the resources are obviously much more limited. That's difficult, but I can live with it.

"The performance we're having at the moment is reasonable; it's a good starting point. The difficulty is that if I look to the back, I see Midland and Suzuki. If I look to the front, I see already Toyota. That means 1000 people, a US$500m budget. So theoretically there's no way to catch them or be ahead of them. So I really hope that the regulations go in a direction that I feel it should, that somebody in a situation like ours, if he can put the right races together, still can a find a way to compete."

Q: Everything has been done quite quickly, so presumably you're not where Red Bull wants to be yet

Berger: "I think we're a bit ahead of the programme. I think when I look to Red Bull, and I know a little bit the situation there, I think they're a bit late this year. They didn't have enough test mileage. I think they can do better than they do.

"You have to say you have Renault, you have Ferrari, you have Honda, you have Mercedes, you have BMW, 10 cars already, so what more can you do as a private team, except be 11th and 12th? With our team, you are definitely looking at a three-year programme. You have to make a plan of what you can do in the first three years. All other things are not realistic."

Q: So where are you going to be in three years?

Berger: "It's a question of how the regulations develop. If the regulations develop in a certain way, then the private teams are going to have certain chances. Then hopefully we can go in the next three years somewhere in the mid-field, consistently in the mid-field. If the regulations stay like they are now, and you know you need a factory like McLaren, there's no way."

Q: Are you assuming you'll be able to get the Red Bull chassis, and so on?

Berger: "Yeah, I think that's an idea for the future. I see that the technical side of Red Bull is growing, and it's getting very competitive, especially with Adrian [Newey]. I'm a big fan of Adrian since many years ago - I think if you want a quick car, he's the guy to have. So I'm sure we're going to be fine.

"But that's not all. You need the whole structure around, and that's why we in Toro Rosso need at least the next three years, to build this structure, so we can use a quick car."

Q: Is it always going to be a junior team?

Berger: "A junior team, especially in the way that we would definitely like to use the young drivers out of the Red Bull pool. I think the bigger resources are more in Red Bull Racing. But our challenge is, of course, even with the possibilities we have, to do something good."

Q: The problem is that after one or two years, the drivers have to move on. Is this going to be a situation where you always take the next young guys coming through the programme?

Berger: "I don't think we should be a driving school for the others, but on the other side if we have a great talent and we can see that in a Red Bull he can deliver a result... I see us as a big Red Bull family. We help each other. They help us in certain things, if we can help them with a driver, we will. If we can manage to help each other, I think that could be a little bit of an advantage for our whole group."

Q: It's a strange situation, in that you are really restricted on driver choice - you can't walk down the paddock and say 'I want Anthony Davidson' or whatever

Berger: "That's not true, not at all. Taking the Red Bull guys is the optimal situation, and I have to say that I am totally behind this idea, because I like young drivers, I like to find young talents, and I believe in it. So it doesn't hurt at all. But if there's somebody in F1, available, and you think he can do better than any of the others in your circumstances, no problem to go in this direction."

Q: But you're not going to hire someone who's been around for five or six years, are you?

Berger: "If the name is Raikkonen and he fits in our budget, no problem!"

Q: Are you happy with the current drivers?

Berger: "I'm impressed by both; both are good guys. I'm very happy. That's why I like to use the Red Bull driver pool, because I think they are doing a very strong school, they really take just talents."

Q: In a way, the work was done three or four years ago, when they were chosen

Berger: "Absolutely. This year we are fine with both. The danger with young ones is that you're sometimes going to catch one who struggles to cope under the pressure of F1, but with these two, I'm more than happy to go on."

Q: From the outside it seems that you are always going to be the B-team, the extra team on the side for Red Bull

Berger: "I don't see it this way. I'm a partner in the team, we have a certain circumstance, and we're going to do the best of it, whatever it is. If today for some reason we're doing a better job than Red Bull, if we're ahead of them, we're ahead of them.

"Even if Didi (Dietrich Mateschitz) is 100% owner of the others, and here he's a 50% owner, it's a group, it's a family. Anyway, I would say more resources are linked to Red Bull Racing, so maybe more potential is there. But it doesn't mean it's always going to be like this. It's completely open in how we're going to succeed."

Q: What about the engine situation? It's gone a bit quieter since Bahrain, but will there be races where it comes up again, like Monaco?

Berger: "I'm very happy. I take it as a compliment. If we would run last, nobody would talk about us. Somebody who understands and looks into the details can see that there's not any advantage in a way that some people are discussing it.

"I mean, there is a basic question to it: should the V10 regulation be in a way that it's worse than the worst engine? Then I would say we are not fair. If the regulation say, or it's in the interest of the FIA to say we want to find a fair way for the 10-cylinder, somewhere between the best and the worst engine, I think they just caught it perfect.

"People can come and say we have fantastic power or whatever. But we have a 10-cylinder, we can use the maximum power already on Friday, because we don't have the mileage problem, and the others are all reducing revs to save the engines. So there's a little bit of an advantage on reliability, which is going to change over the year.

"Some people like to discuss these things, and some people like to make politics. Ron Dennis came to me at the first race and said, 'Gerhard, you are not legal with the V10. Because last year we were sitting together with some teams in Brazil and we signed an agreement that nobody used the 10-cylinder engine.' And I said, 'But Ron, we are running under FIA regulations, not Ron Dennis regulations. Maybe under your regulations we're not legal, but we're running in an FIA World Championship.' I think it's completely nonsense."

Q: Do you think Monaco can be a bit of a surprise?

Berger: "Well, that's what people say. Also people say we have a big advantage at the start, but I didn't see it yet, and I can promise you we did not tell the drivers to start slow, they start as quick as they can! I didn't see any advantage."

Q: Is this engine situation just for one year?

"Well, as long as the regulation is open, we can think about it. It obviously was the cheapest solution, and again, what I also want to say is that we would definitely be with a 10-cylinder if it was our decision, but there was a contract in place from [former Minardi owner Paul] Stoddart already, that we just took over. By the way, we took everything over, the good and the bad things, so I find all the discussion really a compliment, because the others see that somebody is trying to do a job."

Q: So what are the bad things?

Berger: "The bad things... Let's say it this way: there's no surprise, we know what we got. Or we got what we were supposed to get."

Q: It's a strange situation, because they've been building cars for 20 years, and suddenly they're given a car that's built in England...

Berger: "I don't understand the question clearly! Do you want to get to the subject that we're using last year's Red Bull? No, I have to say first we have a design department of 20 people who are working on the car. They're consistently trying to improve it and change things. That's one thing.

"The second thing is, somebody told me you are going five seconds quicker than Minardi last year. Of course, at the start of last year Minardi had a two or three years old Cosworth engine, there was a question of money. They didn't even have close to what we have, because they couldn't afford it.

"Of course we have a quite good car, a quite good engine, two good young drivers, and we've changed quite a lot of people already in the organisation, who are capable of going racing on a bit higher standard. So of course, what do people expect? We are going five seconds quicker than last year, and we're even going to improve."

Q: Looking at it another way, are you actually surprised how good the mechanics are and so on? They haven't really had a chance to show what they can do

Berger: "Nothing surprised me in a positive or negative way, like in every team. It's always a bit difficult for those who are too long in an environment where you come to a weekend just to be there, and not to do something. Because what can you do if you have an engine that has no horsepower? Then it takes a while to change this approach. But there are some people who have good potential. Actually, very good potential."

Q: What about team principal Franz Tost - has he really stepped up and shown how good he is?

Berger: "Yes. The good thing about Franz is that I've known him for a long time; I worked with him closely in BMW. He knows what I expect or what I would like. We fit very well together."

Q: What are his qualities? He keeps a low profile in the paddock

Berger: "Franz is a low profile workaholic, life long in racing, knows what racing means, is very critical of himself and the people around him. He's very hard on himself, and also on the people. Of course in a way what he's doing now is the first time, but I'm very confident that he's going to succeed in what he's doing."

Q: And it suits you that you don't have to do all the day-to-day stuff?

Berger: "I stopped racing because I was very tired. The reason I was very tired was that I had my business at home with the trailer production and transport business and some service stations. I had things to do, then I had BMW, then I had a family, then I have children... It came very heavy, everything.

"So I said let's have a break, let's get a clear mind. I know I want to do racing, because it's my love, it's my love and I like it. But I said to myself I don't want to go back again into a daily operating role as a team principal, because I'll end up in the same situation. I cannot do five things at the same time. But I say anyway, I'd like to have my own team.

"I got this possibility and I said this is just perfect. I have my own team, I can bring in my input without the daily business. I have Franz with me and I can work through him. Like this I can use a bit less time, and I have time for my other business, and time also for myself and for my family, which I don't want to give up.

"So overall now I have a good situation, and I can regulate it a bit. Obviously the first year, the second year, maybe I have to be closer and get to more races, and if everything is set better and we have the right people in the right places, I can reduce it.

"At the moment, I'm using quite a lot of time and quite a lot of thinking about it, because it's necessary, and hopefully it goes in the right direction in the future."

We want to hear from you!

Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.

Take our survey

- The Autosport.com Team

Read and post comments