Gerhard Berger refuses criticism Ferrari is currently receiving
Former Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger has been one of the most acclaimed critics of Formula 1 these days. Gerhard was not able to win a title in the sport but drove for some of the best teams in the sport namely McLaren, Ferrari and Benetton.
Berger defended Ferrari in a recent interview where he said that Ferrari did what they thought was best for the team and it was not their fault at the grand finale of the 2010 Formula 1 season where Fernando Alonso was unable to secure his third drivers’
title.
Many reporters and critics of the sport stated that Ferrari’s strategy for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was beyond pathetic and that was the only reason why Fernando was unable to secure sufficient points to maintain his lead and eventually, win the title.
Fernando Alonso was unable to take over Vitaly Petrov and since the Yas Marina Circuit is not one of the best tracks for overtaking, the Spaniard struggled to maintain his pace behind the Renault driver.
However, Berger stated that it is not as easy as it seems to decide a pit strategy and the team obviously made a mistake, but that does not mean that they did it deliberately or out of stupidity. The team thought that perhaps pitting Alonso earlier would
be the best option but it seemed that Ferrari was unable to take the advantage out of it.
“Afterwards, when you've got all the information at hand and you have time to think about it, you're always smarter," he said. "It was easy to criticise Ferrari after that race but it's incredibly difficult to do the right thing in the crucial second,” he
said.
He believes that Ferrari should be blamed for not providing the two time world champion with the best car for such an important race. Clearly, Petrov was travelling at a relative pace in front of the Spaniard even though his Renault was nowhere near the
Ferrari of Alonso throughout the rest of the season.
“It shouldn't happen with Ferrari that Renault has better F-duct technology than you. The F-duct is a thing that everyone knew about well [by season's end],” he added.
Gerhard believes that Red Bull might dominate the sport for some time now and it is not going to be easy to beat them since they have Adrian Newey by their side. All McLaren, Ferrari or Mercedes can do is try to take away Newey who is the heart of Red Bull
currently.
“So that's on the aerodynamic side. If I was Red Bull's competitor I would be doing everything politically to reduce the importance of aerodynamics. Today this is done simply with the whole cost argument about wind tunnels,” said Gerhard.
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