Gerhard Berger: Criticism and support for Ferrari

G erhard Berger is happy with Sebastian Vettel. The 23-year-old from Heppenheim celebrated his first GP victory in his ToroRosso team in 2008. Two years later he is world champion. 'Sebastian deserves it. On average, of all the drivers, he performed the best over the season.' So Red Bull's policy without stable management was exactly right. The ten-time GP winner warns, however, to put everything on the team. 'The fact that there was no stable control was mainly due to Vettel. He simply refused to drive for the other while he still had a chance of the title. I can understand from his point of view.'

Ferrari mistake forgivable

Ferrari's major strategic mishap with the early pit stop by Fernando Alonso is forgivable, according to Berger. He knows how hectic it can be at the pit wall during the race. 'Afterwards, when you have all the numbers in hand and can do the math in peace, you'll always be smarter. It's easy to criticize Ferrari after the race, but incredibly difficult to do the right thing at the crucial second.'

However, Ferrari receives criticism for the fact that Alonso was not able to overtake Vitaly Petrov on the straight. 'It shouldn't happen to Ferrari that Renault has mastered the F-shaft technology better than you do yourself and that Petrov steals the show from Alonso on the straight. You can't blame anyone for not copying the Red Bull perfectly. There you go Adrian Newey worked out the subtleties in the wind tunnel. Everything has to fit together, it's not that easy to recreate. But with the F-shaft everyone knew what it was about. And here Ferrari just doesn't have the perfect job made. '

Newey makes Red Bull superior for a long time

Berger predicts Red Bull a long phase of superiority. 'They can't be beaten for years as long as they have Adrian Newey.' And that's exactly where his criticism begins. 'Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren should have realized long ago that they didn't have a Newey and couldn't lure him away from Red Bull. What do I do in such a situation? I'm trying to take the tool away from Newey. That's the aerodynamics. If I'm a competitor of If I were Red Bull, I would do everything politically to reduce the importance of aerodynamics. Nowadays that is quite easy with the cost argument. Simply say that the whole wind tunnel testing is far too expensive, thatyou could easily save money there. With regulations in which the aerodynamics no longer bear the brunt of the lap time, Newey is no longer worth so much either. '