Gerhard Berger
 | |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Austrian |
| Active years | 1984 - 1997 |
| Teams | ATS, Arrows, Benetton, Ferrari, McLaren |
| Entries | 210 |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 10 |
| Podiums | 48 |
| Career points | 385 |
| Pole positions | 12 |
| Fastest laps | 21 |
| First entry | 1984 Austrian Grand Prix |
| First win | 1986 Mexican Grand Prix |
| Last win | 1997 German Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 1997 European Grand Prix |
Gerhard Berger, (born August 27, 1959 in Wörgl) is a popular Austrian ex-Grand Prix racing driver who owns 50% of the Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One team.
Career
Berger competed in Formula One for 14 seasons with two third placed season finishes being his best rankings. During this time he won ten grands prix, achieved 48 podiums, 12 poles and 21 fastest laps, two more than his firm friend Ayrton Senna. With 210 starts he is amongst F1's most experienced drivers of all time. He also has the unique distinction of being the winner of Benetton's first and last ever victories, with eleven years separating them.
ATS, Arrows, Benetton
Berger, a multiple race winner in European Formula Three, moved up to Formula One in 1984 driving for the ATS team. A full season for Arrows followed in 1985, but it was not until joining Benetton-BMW in 1986 that his F1 career took off. Exploiting the exceptional power of the BMW turbo engine coupled with a clever Pirelli tire strategy, Berger won his first Grand Prix in Mexico, and was snapped up by Ferrari for 1987, the first of two spells he had with the team.
Ferrari
After mechanical failures robbed him of the chance to perform, Berger came on strongly in 1987, winning the final two rounds of the season, going into 1988 as a Championship favourite. Sadly for Berger, the McLaren team of Prost and Senna dominated the season, winning 15 of the 16 rounds. Berger was the only driver to break the McLaren stranglehold, winning the Italian Grand Prix after Senna tangled with a slower car. This was a particularly poignant victory for the team, as it came just weeks after the death of Enzo Ferrari.
For 1989, Berger was joined at Ferrari by Nigel Mansell. The car was fast but fragile, thanks in part to its revolutionary Semi-Automatic gearbox design. Gerhard Berger was lucky to escape alive from a fiery crash during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola's notorious Tamburello corner, it took 16 seconds for a rescue crew to reach the blazing Ferrari and put the fire out. Suffering remarkably few injuries, notably burns to his hands. Gerhard was able to make it back to the cockpit after missing just one race, mainly due to the fact that Ferrari was using exclusively at this time the Semi-Automatic paddle shift gearbox, Berger admitted his return would have been delayed if Ferrari still used the traditional gear stick transmission used in all the other F1 cars in 1989. Berger was back into the action from mid-season, proving a popular winner of the Portuguese Grand Prix. His only other finishes that year were two second places. His future, however, lay elsewhere.
For the record, during the 1989 Season, Berger out qualified Mansell 8-7. Berger Missed the 1989 Monaco GP due to his injuries sustained from Imola.
McLaren
From 1990 to 1992 Berger joined Ayrton Senna at McLaren, but was rarely able to match the brilliant Brazilian's pace. He took just three wins in these three seasons, gifted the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix by Senna; and two victories in Canada and Australia when other competitors fell by the wayside. His debut at McLaren ruffled feathers, as he outqualified Senna. The Brazilian rarely lost the qualifying battle thereafter, however.
Ferrari again
Berger returned to Ferrari in 1993, the team recalling a popular driver to try and help it out of the doldrums. In 1993, Berger was instrumental in bringing Jean Todt to the team as Team Manager, laying the foundations for the team's future successes. In 1994, Berger recovered from the deaths of close friend Senna and countryman Roland Ratzenberger at the San Marino Grand Prix, to score an emotional win at Hockenheim in the Ferrari 412T, the first win for Ferrari since 1990. A final season with the team in 1995 saw Berger score a number of podiums. A particularly audacious pass on Damon Hill in Canada was just one example of his strong racecraft.
Final years with Benetton
With the arrival of Michael Schumacher at Ferrari in 1996, Berger moved back to Benetton, who became a shadow of their former selves. He could have stayed at Maranello, but felt that Schumacher would receive preferential treatment. Berger spent his final two years in the sport at the team, winning them their last Grand Prix, again at Hockenheim in 1997, coming back after a 3 race layoff following illness and the death of his father. He retired at the end of the season, his final race seeing him finish a very close fourth in Jerez only seconds behind the victor Mika Häkkinen. Rumours of a Ferrari return for 1998 were false.
Berger and Senna
It was during the McLaren years that Gerhard Berger became most famous for his humorous side. Popular accounts tell of many ingenious practical jokes thought up by the Austrian to break through the serious, focused and unyielding Ayrton Senna. Senna, accepting the challenge, quickly submitted, and spurred on by team manager Ron Dennis the practical joking escalated.
Accounts tell of an incident at Monza where in a joint helicopter ride Senna had been showing off his new tailor made briefcase. Having been made of carbon fibre composite, Senna argued that it should be virtually indestructible. Berger, without much hesitation and much to Senna's disbelief, opened the door of the helicopter and threw the briefcase out, to test the hypothesis.
"It fell somewhere near the course but we found it again," Berger recalled with a cheeky grin.
On another occasion, in an Australian hotel room Berger filled Senna's bed with animals. Senna understandably infuriated, confronted Berger by saying;
"I've spent the last hour catching 12 frogs in my room," to which Berger replied, "Did you find the snake?"
"Actually they weren't frogs, they were bigger, more like toads. In Australia they have this kind of stuff. I thought he liked animals but clearly not," Berger explained. It was an incident that prompted retaliation by Senna, who then proceeded to put a strong smelling French cheese in the air conditioning unit of Berger's room.
On another occasion, Senna and Brazilian compatriot Mauricio Gugelmin decided to fill Berger's shoes with shaving foam on a fast train ride to a dinner in Japan. Having been forced to attend the dinner wearing a tuxedo with sneakers, Berger vowed for retribution. It was at the Japanese Grand Prix a few days later that Gugelmin (driving for Leyton-House) was approached by Joseph Leberer, the McLaren team nutritionist, offering fresh orange juice. Ever vigilant, Mauricio declined the suspicious offer. He would later expand:
"One hour before the race starts he crushed four sleeping pills into that juice and sent it to me. I would pass out at the start of the race in which the world title would be decided. The cars roaring by at the track and I snoring in the cabin, can you imagine it?"
Best known is probably an incident in which Berger replaced Senna's passport photo with what Ron Dennis described as "an equivalent-sized piece of male genitalia". Senna's fame meant he rarely had his passport checked, but on a later trip to Argentina Berger's prank resulted in officials holding the Brazilian for 24 hours. As a response to this gag, Senna superglued all of Berger's credit cards together.
Berger is also reported to have provoked Senna into confronting (and ultimately punching) Eddie Irvine at the 1993 Japanese Grand Prix
Another incident occurred years later at Ferrari, when Gerhard Berger and fellow F1 driver Jean Alesi were taking a ride with team director Jean Todt's new special made Lancia roadcar at the very first testing day of the 1995 F1 Season. Arriving at the test track, Jean Alesi lost control of the car after Berger unexpectedly pulled the handbrake. Having flipped the car, skidded upside down to a halt in front of the entrance and Alesi having been sent to Hospital, Berger admitted to Todt who wanted to know what happened to his car that they had put "slight curb marks on the roof".
The strong connection between Senna and Berger has extended beyond the Brazilian's death in 1994, Berger now acting as an advisor to Bruno Senna, Ayrton's nephew, as he tries to become a Formula One driver.
After retirement from racing
A hugely popular figure in Formula One, Berger was up until 2003 regularly seen in the pitlane in his new capacity as Competitions Director at BMW, overseeing their successful return to Formula One in 2000.
On April 25th, 2004; 10 years after Senna's death, Berger drove the JPS Lotus Renault 97T which Ayrton used in the 1985 championship for 3 laps, at Imola before the start of the 2004 San Marino Grand Prix.
In February 2006, he acquired 50% of Scuderia Toro Rosso in a business deal which saw Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz purchase half of Berger Logistik, a road haulage company founded by Berger's father Johann in 1961.
Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
* Ineligible for points.
External links
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