Berger tips Schumacher to quit after 2012

Adrian Newey is Red Bull’s guarantee to remain a F1 frontrunner, according to Gerhard Berger.

The former ten-time race winner knows the Briton well, having won the 2008 Italian grand prix as a constructor when Sebastian Vettel drove the Newey-penned Toro Rosso to victory at Monza.

"As long as they have Adrian Newey and his technical staff, Red Bull will have either the fastest or the second fastest car," Berger told this week’s Auto Motor und Sport magazine.

"And with Vettel in one of the cars, with so much confidence and experience now, he can make the difference even with the second best car," added the Austrian.

But according to Berger, it is a different story for Germany’s former world-beater Michael Schumacher.

"I don’t think he’s going to extend the contract," he said, referring to the fact 2012 is the third and final year of the 43-year-old’s existing deal with Mercedes.

"At some point he has to get tired.

"He has no chance against Rosberg," explained Berger. "He will have to admit that at more than forty years of age he can’t beat a young driver at Rosberg’s level."

Indeed, young talent is now Berger’s specialty, after he was asked by his former Ferrari boss Jean Todt to head the FIA’s single seater commission.

Berger thinks the junior categories cost youngsters too much.

"What I think would be reasonable is EUR 50,000 at the most for a kart season, 100,000 for an entry-level series, 300,000 for formula 3 and half a million for the last series before formula one," he said.