F1: Berger: `Bourdais has winning mentality`

[Rory Phoulorie]

Wednesday 15th August 2007

Gerhard Berger believes that Sebastien Bourdais will buck the trend of Champ Car drivers failing in F1.

Bourdais will join Toro Rosso in the 2008 season after he impressed the team in testing.

A string of Champ Car stars have failed in F1 over the years including Michael Andretti, Alex Zanardi and Cristiano da Matta.

Berger admits that he has some concerns over signing the Frenchman, but ultimately thinks his class and winning mentality will help him in the formula.

When asked whether Bourdais can succeed where the likes of da Matta failed Berger told Autosport: "That was the only concern I had and I still have."

"I think, at the end of the day, to win championships you need a certain mentality. It doesn't matter what formula you are in, you have quick guys who never win anything and other guys who are always winning at the end of the day championships. That is a very important thing and this he (Bourdais) definitely has.

"When I see the last weekend (at Elkhart Lake) he was 1.5 seconds quicker on pole! At the end of the day he is fast. He has showed everything, every sign he has showed, that he should be quick."

The Austrian boos explained the rationale behind attaining the 28-year-old Newman-Haas driver's services.

"It was a bit early for Toro Rosso to get one of the quick guys like (Fernando) Alonso and (Lewis) Hamilton," he said.

"And at the end of the day the driver is becoming more and more important, especially next year with traction control gone.

"We thought it wise to look at a young one, but not just young ones, one with a bit of race experience. So we had to look at others, some of the others with potential, and not yet in F1. And the only one was Bourdais.

"I have looked at him for two years and I always asked myself, just how good is he? He did an excellent job in America, he won F3, F3000, he won three times Champ Car and he is leading this time, so theoretically there is potential. And I still it is fine to take the risk.

"Let's give him the chance, that is what we did in testing, and also in testing he did a good job for us, he worked well with the engineers, he was quick straightaway, he did not do any damage, he was very fit.

"Everything he did he showed his potential. We thought it could be a chance for us to get a really, really good driver."

Planet-F1

[Rory Phoulorie]