Speed Blasts Bosses Berger & Tost

Perhaps Scott Speed should be glad the CART season's last race is 2 December and not sooner . . . (unless Bourdais could get out of his contract sooner . .) - his time in F1 is up. Attitude and press articles where you slam your bosses is not very savy.


Scott Speed has hit out at Toro Rosso bosses Gerhard Berger and Franz Tost, saying they are "pushing like hell" to get rid of him and teammate Tonio Liuzzi next season.

Speed's 2007 deal with Toro Rosso was delayed until late in February, with team co-owner Berger saying the American needed to show more commitment in order to stay at the Italian squad.

Berger has made no secret of the fact that the team are interested in Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, who has an option with Toro Rosso for 2008.

Speed angrily hit out at Berger and Tost following the European Grand Prix, saying both him and teammate Liuzzi have very little support from them.

"Gerhard and Franz have their own ideas about what they want to do with their future, and they say things accordingly," Speed told the SpeedTV website.

"That's nothing to do with my performance on the track, that's for sure. It's clear that from my bosses me and Tonio both have very little support.

"It's been that way for the last two years, and it's a lot more now. At some point I said I don't care - if I'm not in F1 next year, if I'm with a different team, it's OK for me. It's actually made me lot more relaxed and a lot more calm, and I think I'm producing better results, actually.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read the press and know that Franz and Gerhard are pushing like hell to get rid of me and Tonio."

Both Speed and Liuzzi retired from the European Grand Prix after spinning off before the end of lap three.


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Carol

 

If Berger and Tost were actually not thinking of dumping Speed, now they have a good reason to do so. Speed needs to keep his mouth shut and simply deliver good performances to keep his seat or have options to move to another team (spyker...)

 

Speed's and Liuzzi's F1 careers are over, they just haven't realized it yet. Both will have no seats in 08 and possibly even before the 07 season is over.

Bourdais is a given for one of the seats and the 2nd seat will go to the highest bidder.

The team called Speed "a waste of space in the TR" and said of Liuzzi "he has no application or concentration".

On a side note: At the PR show in Abu Dhabi, several F1 pilots were doing doughnuts, including Speed. Embarassingly enough he managed to stall his car doing that.

 

I dont get it?

Scott Speed is the only American in F-1 and all we do is bash the hell out of him! No wonder there is no USGP!!!

I say finally, he has some personality .... instead of all the corporate speak, he is saying like it is! Torro Rosso... is a joke! I think if they were able to develope drivers Speed would be on his way to a better team. Berger is a whiner, was never really that committed anywhere. when he was at Ferrari he basically did nothing, was always in the shadow of Prost & Senna... if they were out then Mansell could take him any day.

All he did was demoralize Alboreato.... if berger were smart, he would invest in a driver and groom them. Speed has shown real promise when the car works! I say fix the damn car 1st then ***** at the Driver.

As for Bordais? I dont get it? why leave a series where you are on top, and then go to a low rung team in F-1, where you will have no opportunity to even fight for 3rd or 4th? It does not make sense to me. He is going to ruin any reputation he has. I doubt if he will even ever get a major team.... he's too old.

 

Why do people move from karts to Formula cars? To move up in the ladder.

When TR was Minardi they hired a guy named Alonso. Look where he is today.

 

I agree with you, at least Speed has tried , was positive , actually gave interviews, and is a good spokesperson who could have helped open
up F1 to the USA if they had used him correctly and supported him a bit
more. As for Bourdais, can't stand him, he may be good, and his wins show that , but when things don't go his way he's a tremedous whiner in the vein of Barrichello.

 

Because he will go from racing has-beens and never-weres like Justin Wilson and Paul Tracy in a second-rate series that is a shaddow of its former self to racing Kimi Raikkanen, Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso at Monaco, Spa and Monza.

Any open-wheel driver has to aspire to F1, especially a European like Bourdais. That being said, I can't see him being any better with that team than Scott Speed ( whom I think has raised his game this year and deserves to stay).

 

Speed had very little, if any, effect on F1 in America just because he was a driver from the US - he definitely hasn't been the drawing card to Indy. He was actually an embarassment with his inability to speak intelligently and childish mannerisms. . . definitely not "ready for prime time"

Why Sebastian - as Andreas said: move up the ladder. I would suspect some definite changes with STR should Nicholas Todt by into the team.

Carol

 

+1
Heck, I liked even Eddie UnderaCheever better than Speed.

What's the scoop there? Never heard that part of the story. They are totally cash strapped now that Berger has to cough up 50% of the costs and they have basically no sponsor.

 

I agree. Berger and company think they will get better results if they change drivers? Fat chance. The drivers are being used as scapegoats, pure and simple.

I have been more impressed with Speed this year - he has improved, and therefore shows me he is capable of improvement.

I know it is unlikely, but I hope he is able to get another ride with someone else, and continues to develop as a driver, and ends up being a credible driver.

 

+1 I think the samething Dan, neither Speed or Liuzzi is a slouch, the problem goes a lot deeper in this team.

 

Speed and Tonio are not of the calibre that they can help to lift TR. They both need to go. It has been obvious for a long time. Speed is personna non grata in the paddock and not because he is fighting for position. Other problems in TR are evident

 

I have to agree with this. Scott Speed never had a chance at a fair shake, and frankly I'm surprised he came back to the team the way Berger's was treating him in the press.

There's been 10 races so far this year. Of those, Speed finished 3, and Luizzi finished 4. Speed has a higher average finish when the cars get to the end of the race, and is placed higher than Luizzi in the drivers' points.

STR makes bad cars. Even the Spykers have finished more races.

 

Here lies the dilemma; any driver who is recognized as being a strong driver and good developer of a car is not going to go to a lower rung team like STR. If they are lucky enough to land a rookie who is capable of developing a car, he'll get swept up by a higher rung team sooner than later. They need to have a car that shows enough promise to give a capable driver a reason to stay with the team.

 

Not true. A "STR" ended up on the podium yesterday:

Remember the controversy at the beginning of the season over the fact that the STR is basically a repainted Red Bull car? Berger was clever enough to have a 3rd party company in between so he doesn't get the parts directly from Red Bull, but the chassis are identical. Obviously they use different parts as they have different engines, but the core of the cars is the same. The drivers suck.

Spyker even protested this.

 

Yes, but Alonso was already under contract with Renault then, so he actually didn´t start to climb the ladder from the botton of the grid with the Minardi: it´s hard to make some noise with that car so maybe it´s not so good idea to debut with them.

On the other hand, I suppose that it´s easier to get some attention being at the back of the grid than being in the other side of the world.

 

Not true:
Alonso began his career at Minardi in 2001. He joined Renault in 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Alonso

BTW: Mark Webber also started his career at Minardi.

 

No, he was under contract with Renault and they "lend" him to Minardi to let him get some experience.

He said later that his year at Minardi was a waste of time, and that he learned more being a test driver for Renault in 2002.

OTOH, Mark Webber is a fine example of a driver who really climbed from the bottom with the Minardi.

 

Other noteable F1 (test) drivers that came from Minardi: Luca Badoer, Marc Gené, Anthony Davidson (two races).

 

And just for the record:

The Minardi team operated with about half the budget STR has at its disposal. The car is Newey designed, the engine is Ferrari and the tires are Bridgestone. How bad can it be really?

 

So do you still want to dispute the highly likely prospect of Bourdais joining STR next year? We've been going back and forth on this for a while, so are you finally convinced? Lmao. You're lucky I never followed through on that wager about him joining the team, I was going to propose you having to sport a Felipe Massa avatar. LOL!

 

Heard it yesterday during the race. I'm sure it was Varsha who mentioned it.

Nicholas Todt is Sebastian Bourdais' manager; also manager for Felipe; also runs ART GP2 team; thinking of buying into STR. The plot thickens, huh? Todt and Bourdais are French (for what that matters).

BTW Andreas - have a wonderful time in Hungary.

Carol

 

Thanks, but first I'm trying to have a wonderful time at the Autobahnclub...

Nicholas at STR could really improve things. I didn't think much of him until I learned that he is running his own GP2 team. So there is more than just a name to this man.

 

Scott needs to change hsi name from

Scott Speed

To

Noah Speed.

Pretty soon it's going to be

Noah Ride.

 

Despite the name, Noah didn't ride the waves at the German sea battle yesterday well enough and washed up on the sandy beach of turn 1.