[JackieC]

Berger has been suggesting he's not good enough and now says he has to improve to retain his seat.

http://www.motorsport.com/news/artic...D=302647&FS=F1

Looks like the writing is on the wall a bit but perhaps they want a bit of stability instead?

[husartrof]

Sadly this kind of talk is inevitable. Bourdais was never really going to have the opportunity to grab the attentions of a better team while learning the F1 ropes in a Toro Rosso.

I don't think he's done badly against Vettel, and do think he deserves a second year, but his chances of progressing into a truly competitive race seat in the future are slim to zero.

[tetMitshisk]

He was doing better than Vettel until the new Toro Rosso car came and after that he has just disappeared.

[husartrof]

Eh?

All of the examples you mention were new prospects. Bourdais had a highly successful 5yr career in Champcars and so to some extent had already proved himself as a winner.

For him to take a chance with a team like Toro Rosso in F1 was a big risk for his career at this point in his career. By "stepping down" he's had to prove himself all over again when he didn't need to. In that sense he is very different to the rookies you mention. Added to that you have the inbuilt F1 scepticism of anyone making the move across from US open-wheel racing, and he was up against Red Bull's favourite son Vettel.

In that sense more is expected of Bourdais than a driver out of, for example, F3 or GP2, and I'm not sure whether F1 is willing to give him the opportunity to show how good he could be.

[SarSerceSaice]

Berger has been suggesting he's not good enough

When a team manager goes through 2 complete driver line-ups in 2 years, he should perhaps look more at himself.

[Donadoni1809]

With Bourdais' seat arguably under threat, then look, who is rumoured to replace him.
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...11103717.shtml

Anyway, I think this is quite telling, how consistently has Vettel been quicker than Bourdais. I'm even struggling to remember, when was the last weekend, when SB had the upper hand. Spanish GP? IMO it may well show that Der Seb is quite a consistent driver.

[pokerbonuscod]

Bourdais should have been in F1 much earlier. I remember seeing him race very competitively in F3 (2000? 2001? can't quite remember the year, he was with DAMS) before he went to America. It was at that time that I thought he should have went to F1. He went a different route and, one which I think will block the road for a succesful F1 career. It would have been nice to know his ability in F1 7 or 8 years ago though.

[Msrwbdas]

It seems that Gerhard Berger is determined to take over the role of Worst Team Driver Environment from Williams...if he fires Bourdais, that will be 2 complete sets of drivers lost in 2 seasons. That is starting to look like incompetence. Not only that, but one of the dropped drivers (Scott Speed) is now winning race after race in ARCA in the USA, which is likely to lead to the obvious question "was it Scott Speed who wasn't getting the job done, or was it STR?". What young driver is going to want to drive for STR with that kind of internal team support, especially given the fact that the team is for sale?
I think that the negative turning point was last season, when Franz Tost criticised the drivers publicly, and Berger sided with Tost. He should have fired Tost. You do not undermine drivers publicly like that. It is totally unprofessional.

[GinaIsWild]

I agree with post above..........

[lLianneForbess]

I agree that Tost is awful and I don't understand why he wasn't at least questioned by the police over the Speed incident. He's not given Liuzzi a particularly good name either, yet he was faster than Vettel at the dry races last year.

But as far as Bourdais goes, while he is basically a good driver, he's not adapting to the new car well, and he was told before the season that for someone so experienced he'd be expected to be on the pace pretty quickly. Instead he's gone backwards. I think he'll last the season but it sounds like Sato's got his seat for next year, partnered by either Senna or Buemi.

[lLianneForbess]

I agree that Tost is awful and I don't understand why he wasn't at least questioned by the police over the Speed incident. He's not given Liuzzi a particularly good name either, yet he was faster than Vettel at the dry races last year.

But as far as Bourdais goes, while he is basically a good driver, he's not adapting to the new car well, and he was told before the season that for someone so experienced he'd be expected to be on the pace pretty quickly. Instead he's gone backwards. I think he'll last the season but it sounds like Sato's got his seat for next year, partnered by either Senna or Buemi.

[Paybeskf]

I think Bourdais is either going back to America and race in IndyCar, but what is more likely is a sign-up with Peugeot.

[Nptxsews]

There's the Berger-Tost way of doing things, then there's the Vijay Mallya-Mike Gascoyne way of doing things. That is, you can deride and blame your drivers, or you can praise and encourage them.

Force India announced that both drivers--who have not only failed to score a point between them but also have failed to get out of Q1--will be retained for next season.

They are realists and have kept the season in perspective. Good on them.

[vioppyskype]

first of all these cars are hard to drive at limit when you first come up. SV has done a great job but also actually had more exp in them. Berger is a knowitall so you can see what kind of idiot we have here. I am sure SB isn't taking and sh!t off Berger and I would expect him to return to the states. We will take him back - he is polished and quite fast. I believe fast enough for f1 given enough time. He does have a chance to stay however if Berger gets Senna.

[ronaldasten]

Bourdais should have been in F1 much earlier. I remember seeing him race very competitively in F3 (2000? 2001? can't quite remember the year, he was with DAMS) before he went to America. It was at that time that I thought he should have went to F1. He went a different route and, one which I think will block the road for a succesful F1 career. It would have been nice to know his ability in F1 7 or 8 years ago though.

I agree with that, but I also think there's a lot of truth in the criticism of Berger. I had a lot of time for him as a driver, but rather less now. He needs to remember that he's the boss of Toro Rosso, not a team whose car and drivers should be expected to be regular contenders. He has two excellent people behind the wheel. Unless he intends to bring someone in who has a huge budget, why not try and build both Bourdais and Vettel up and get some continuity? He won't be able to hire anybody much better.

[Ubgvuncd]

With Bourdais' seat arguably under threat, then look, who is rumoured to replace him.
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...11103717.shtml

Anyway, I think this is quite telling, how consistently has Vettel been quicker than Bourdais. I'm even struggling to remember, when was the last weekend, when SB had the upper hand. Spanish GP? IMO it may well show that Der Seb is quite a consistent driver.

Don't get me wrong because I supported SAF1, but please...give it up Taku.

[adultcomicssitedessaa]

Force India announced that both drivers--who have not only failed to score a point between them but also have failed to get out of Q1--will be retained for next season.

Why???

Toro Rosso and Force India seem to be going about their idiocy in opposite ways.

STR criticises and derides drivers and gets into physical encounters with them, whilst Force India indulge in nicities, not realising that at least one of their drivers suck (Sutil... who is now going to drive in his THIRD full season).

By comparison, Bourdais, who has barely been embarrassed against a very talented, more experienced team-mate, might not make it to 2009 - possibly having to make room for the past-it Sato (for $). IMO Tost and Berger make the worst team managers (given their resources) that have been on the grid for quite a while.

[pokerbonuscod]

Why???

I see it this way. Force India are arguably the least competitive team on the grid this year. Most likely, their option is to keep the same driver line-up or pick a new 'up and coming' driver. The latter is a gamble. The former gives the team time to develop as opposed to starting from scratch with new drivers. I can understand their decision despite Sutil being quite an under-performer.

[Donadoni1809]

Considering that currently Force India has the worst car on the grid, they have managed to get quite good drivers for a team in their position. In the past usually a worst team needed at least one pay driver and could only dream about a very experienced and at least moderately successful driver. At best they had just one talented youngster alongside paydriver.

[milfovoxapl]

I like Sebastian, and hope he does well, and to be honest was expecting a bit more from him.

That said he definately deserves a second season. We all know he has racing talent, he's proved that, its just a matter of adapting it over. Given a better car in the second season, I can see him excelling higher up the grid.

Berger was very good with BMW in their Williams days, but so far he hasn't exactly excelled as a team boss.