By Andrew Cutler
November 21 2006

Now that Scuderia Toro Rosso co-owner Gerhard Berger has had a chance to sit down with Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz and secure his own future with the team, he is talking to the press about his view of what STR accomplished in 2006 and what the goals will be for the future. In a recent inverview with the German magazine Kicker, Gerhard said that STR's maiden season should be judged by the results that it's predecessor organization, Minardi, accieved in 2005. "We improved the technology on the cars, were consistent and achieved our aim of finishing races," he explained, "Last year, this team [as Minardi] was fifth in terms of kilometres covered, but we brought our cars to the finish almost every time. I know that we had no intoxicating successes, but we have to remember where we came from. In the first year, our situation was not ideal, but our achievements were good, so the season was absolutely okay."

As for the 2007 season and beyond, Berger has set a goal of being a solid mid-pack team. "[The Red Bull teams] have the best engines in F1, the ones which won every race bar one this year. Our goal for the next three years is to move into the midfield. That may not sound that ambitious, but you have to remember that our competitors, even in that area, have 1000 employees, like Toyota, or have won world titles, like Williams, so we must be realistic."

He also, once again, stated that he sees no driver line-up change happening for the 2007 season, despite the fact that no official announcement has yet been made. "Our drivers will not be changed," he said, "We just had to settle other things first."