Gerhard Berger has declined to shed light on whether Vitantonio Liuzzi might suffer the same fate as his dumped 2007 teammate Scott Speed.
Speed has been immediately replaced by Sebastian Vettel, while rumours linger that multiple Champ Car title winner Sebastien Bourdais is waiting in the wings for Liuzzi’s seat in 2008.
Former grand prix winner Berger, who today co-owns and runs the Toro Rosso team, was asked by the news agency APA about the future of Italian Liuzzi, who like Speed was also a protege of Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko.
Austrian Berger last month questioned countryman Marko’s judgement when he surmised that he had “never experienced a pair of drivers such as ours”.
Berger now tells APA: “First things first. In the past ten days we have been trying very hard to secure Vettel.”
He also revealed that energy drink Red Bull’s billionaire chief Dietrich Mateschitz led the negotiations with BMW and with Vettel’s management to secure the 20-year-old rookie.
“We absolutely wanted him,” Berger said.
