DECEMBER 18, 2005

Auf wiedersehen, Herr Brunner?

There are reports in Germany that Gustav Brunner has left Toyota. The 55-year-old Austrian has been with the team since 2002 when he joined the team from Minardi, having walked out in the middle of 2001. The dispute had to be settled with a large payment from Toyota to Minardi.

Brunner has been designing F1 cars since1978 when he was hired by the fledgling ATS F1 team. After a period in Formula 2 with Maurer he returned to F1 with ATS in 1981 and then moved on to RAM and then Ferrari where he designed the F187, with which Gerhard Berger won the Japanese and Australian GPs in 1987. In 1988 he designed the Ferrari Indycar - which never ran - before he went to Rial and from there to Zakspeed. After that his career took him to Leyton House Racing when he became technical director in 1992. He moved to Minardi in 1993 but was then taken back by Ferrari where he spent five years before returning to Minardi in 1998.

Given his Austrian nationality and his love of Italy, Brunner would seem to be a good candidate for a job with Scuderia Toro Rosso.