Former Red Bull driver Vitantonio Liuzzi has claimed that his F1 career plans were left in tatters by Gerhard Berger, the F1 race winner for McLaren and Ferrari.

After sharing the second Red Bull seat alongside David Coulthard with Christian Klein in 2005, Liuzzi landed a full-time drive with newly purchased sister team Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) for 2006.

Vitantonio Liuzzi reveals Gerhard Berger influence behind Red Bull split

The Italian claimed Toro Rosso’s only points finish of their debut season, claiming an eighth-placed finish in the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis and outclassing team-mate Scott Speed.

Speed was replaced for the second half of the following season by Sebastian Vettel, who would go on to dominate F1 with Red Bull’s senior team by winning four consecutive World Championships from 2010.

Liuzzi himself was dropped by Toro Rosso at the end of the 2007 campaign as the team brought in Sebastien Bourdais, the dominant force in the now-defunct Champ Car single-seater category in the United States, as Vettel’s new team-mate.

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Berger, the Austrian driver who claimed 10 victories in 210 F1 appearances between 1984 and 1997, was Toro Rosso’s co-owner at the time with a 50 per cent shareholding in the Faenza-based outfit.

The former McLaren and Ferrari star joined Vettel on the podium after the German famously claimed Red Bull’s maiden F1 victory for Toro Rosso at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Appearing on the Inside Line podcast, Liuzzi, now 44, revealed that Berger brought “friction” to his relationship with Red Bull by pushing for team founder Dietrich Mateschitz to sign Bourdais.

He said: “It was a little bit confusing at the time, because when I was in Red Bull I thought my full career would be with them because I was linking perfectly with the brand and it was a big family.

“But then after Berger came into the Toro Rosso team, we started having the first friction because he had his own interest towards other drivers.

“He was supporting Bourdais together with Nicolas Todt and that’s why he started putting pressure. In my last year with Toro Rosso, Mr Mateschitz decided to put in Vettel instead of Scott Speed.

“I did a super season because I was super competitive in the second part of this season, also when Vettel was my team-mate, but Berger had different ideas.

“So in the end, even if I was pretty sure that my position would have been confirmed for 2008 because in terms of pace, consistency, handling the team, working together with the team it was a really great year.

“Gerhard had totally different ideas, let’s say, for the future. So in not the nicest way, we ended up breaking up due to Gerhard.

“It was my breaking point with Red Bull, because if not I think I would have been with Red Bull for all my career because the Mr Mateschitz was really believing in me and it was the same for me [towards the team].

“He was like a father to me. It was really great to work with them.

“But Gerhard was the breaking up link at the time. It’s is a long story, the way he did it, but it was not [done] in the nicest way and in the cleanest way, but that’s how it is when you are in such a big sport. You have to fight with every kind of situation.

“We fought really hard with Gerhard.

“I got really p****d off with that situation that I couldn’t even go and say to Mr Mateschitz because obviously they were partners for so many years.”

Liuzzi went on to join the newly rebranded Force India team as a test driver for 2008, returning to a race seat at the 2009 Italian Grand Prix after Giancarlo Fisichella was poached by Ferrari following a starring performance at the previous race at Spa.

After participating in the final five races of 2009, Liuzzi contested the entire 2010 season with Force India before joining backmarkers HRT for 2011.

Liuzzi’s comments come after Berger voiced concerns over Red Bull’s long-term F1 future, warning that the team’s turbulent 2024 could signal “the beginning of the end.”

He told German publication Auto Motor und Sport: “It’s a well-known fact that you need much longer to build up than to tear down.

“But nobody would have thought that everything would crumble just six months after the death of Didi Mateschitz.

“It’s often the beginning of the end when such issues are triggered.

“Formula 1 is so complex and so competitive that you can only be successful if everyone in the team pulls together, if everyone is in agreement and communicates well with each other.

“The Red Bull brand has always radiated cheerfulness and a cool image. Suddenly everything has changed.

“Completely atypical for the team, there are no longer any clear statements.”

Berger went on to point to the team’s hesitation to drop Sergio Perez during the Mexican’s lacklustre 2024 campaign, claiming Red Bull would have acted more ruthlessly in the era before Mateschitz’s death in October 2022.

He added: “Let’s take the example of Perez.

“It was clear that he was no longer performing. The fact that he was nevertheless given a contract again was not understood by the experts.

“There may have been reasons, such as marketing constraints or the contract situation.

“But when things didn’t get any better after that, he was given three more races and then two more and a decision was avoided.

“I couldn’t recognise a clear line.

“In the Mateschitz era, Red Bull was always famous for clarity.”

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