SEPANG, Malaysia, March 21, 2008 (AFP) - Toro Rosso co-owner Gerhard Berger said Friday he plans to stay with the team -- if a new backer emerges to buy out Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz.

But he said he has no plans to buy the outfit himself and run it as Berger Grand Prix.

"It is not a question of the name -- it is about having the resources to make the team successful and for that we need to have a new partner," he said. Red Bull owner and fellow-Austrian Mateschitz announced this week that he plans to sell his 50 per cent holding in the team -- run originally as a junior team to the Red Bull outfit -- before 2010.

New rules are due to be introduced in 2010 that may ban all "customer car" teams from running in Formula One.

Berger said he only learned of his partner´s decision through media reports.

He said: "First of all I really want to finish what I have started -- and that is to pick up a team at the very end of the grid and make it a midfield team.

"I think we have been very successful in that so far. At the moment it is difficult to say if there is still a realistic chance to go much further."

He said it was difficult to plan further because there were always three or four major players at the top of Formula One and it would require great resources to join them.

He also made clear that he trusted "Didi" to continue supporting, and funding, the team that he renamed Toro Rosso after buying out Australian Paul Stoddart´s Minardi outfit.

Mateschitz and Berger bought Minardi in September 2005.