Who did the former Ferrari star call ‘The dumbest driver he's ever seen?’ 

F1 Grand Prix of Germany - Qualifying
F1 Grand Prix of Germany - Qualifying - Former driver Gerhard Berger appears in Germany (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images).

Former Ferrari driver and Torro Rosso team boss Gerhard Berger called former F1 driver Scott Speed the 'dumbest driver he's ever seen.' The Austrian was Speed's boss in his Torro Rosso days but was unable to cope with the American's lack of performance and arrogance.

Red Bull took over Minardi at the end of 2005 in the hopes of continuing its Scuderia heritage. In doing so, the team became Torro Rosso and hired Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed as their initial drivers, with Berger as the team boss. While having an American driver was an exciting prospect for the team, Speed was unable to impress on track, managing a best of P9.

The former Ferrari driver went on to lash out at Scott Speed, who was reportedly arrogant off-track as well. In an interview with F1 Racing, Berger said:

"He thought he knew everything, but he was the stupidest driver I've ever seen. He wasn't talented. If a driver doesn't perform, he tries to talk his way out of it. But because I was a racing driver myself, I already knew all the excuses, all the crap."

Ferrari drivers struggling with inconsistencies in the car

Ferrari had a disappointing weekend in Miami due to inconsistencies with their 2023 challenger. Both drivers encountered difficulties in extracting maximum performance from their cars, resulting in Carlos Sainz finishing in fifth place and Charles Leclerc in seventh.

During the Q3 session, Leclerc pushed his car to its limits, but unfortunately lost control of the rear end, causing a collision with the wall and triggering red flags. As a result, both Leclerc and two-time world champion Max Verstappen started the race from unfavorable positions, occupying seventh and ninth places on the starting grid respectively.

Sainz initially secured a promising third place during qualifying after the red flag interruption. However, he struggled to maintain his position during the race and ultimately finished in fifth place, trailing behind Max Verstappen and George Russell.

Ferrari's current challenge lies in the car's tendency to alter its balance mid-corner, posing exceptional difficulties for Leclerc and Sainz to maintain consistent driving performance.

Speaking about the issue on the Race podcast, F1 pundit Scott Mitchell-Malm said about Ferrari:

"It was interesting, actually. We've heard before that the car's wind-affected and particularly vulnerable to that. When they talk about lacking consistency on the car, he [Leclerc] said: 'It's not even corner to corner, it's in the same corner, there'll be a wild swing from an oversteer balance to an understeer balance just depending on what's happening through the corner.'"

With Monaco's track set to suit the SF23 more than others gone by, it will be interesting to watch the Scuderia team get to grips with their red challenger.

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Edited by Viraj Vaz
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