Berger: Vettel will be missed

Sebastian Vettel has lifted the Toro Rosso team up the grid this year and at the same time buried his teammate Bourdais

Gerhard Berger concedes that losing Sebastian Vettel will be a blow to Toro Rosso as the German's performances have gone a long way towards lifting the team's flagging spirits.

While in the past others have failed to score points for the backmarker outfit, lagging at the back of the pack, Vettel has so far bagged nine points this season in results far outweighing the expected performance of the car.

Next season, though, he's off to Red Bull having already been confirmed as David Coulthard's replacement. It's a much-deserved step up the grid for the 21-year-old who has proven himself as a star of F1 during his short stay at Toro Rosso.

"Well, of course the media interest is important, but what is more important is the performance of the team – Sebastian has helped us a lot to get the right atmosphere back," Berger told the official F1 website.

"We had been really struggling with Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi last year, but he has proved what the team is able to do and has done it in a very nice way, with us, with the engineers, with everybody.

"That has pushed us such an immense step forward – it is really a pity to lose him. There is not a single soul in the team that is not sad to see him go at the end of the season.

"On the other hand we get so much from Red Bull. Without Red Bull, Toro Rosso would be nowhere, so it feels good that we can give something back, even if I would like to have him stay with the team." Sporting Life