Gerhard Berger
Nationality	Austrian
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1984 - 1997
Teams	ATS, Arrows, Benetton, Ferrari, McLaren
Races	210
Championships	0
Wins	10
Podium finishes	48
Career points	385
Pole positions	12
Fastest laps	21
First race	1984 Austrian Grand Prix
First win	1986 Mexican Grand Prix
Last win	1997 German Grand Prix
Last race	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. But again, the car failed to deliver the ultimate performance, and Berger was lucky to escape alive from a fiery crash during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola's notorious Tamburello corner. Suffering remarkably few injuries, 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.

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 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 that year. 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.

Another incident occurred years later at Ferrari, when Gerhard Berger and fellow F1 driver Jean Alesi were instructed to collect team director Jean Todt's new special made Lancia roadcar. Returning to the team headquarters entrance, Jean Alesi lost control of the car after Berger unexpectedly pulled the handbrake. Having flipped the car and skidded upside down to a halt in front of the entrance, Berger admitted to Todt 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, Gerhard 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 1986 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

() (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Team	WDC	Points
1984	ATS	BRA	RSA	BEL	SMR	FRA	MON	CAN	USE	USA	GBR	GER	AUT 12	NED	ITA* 6	EUR Ret	POR 13		ATS	-	0
1985	Arrows	BRA Ret	POR Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 13	USA 11	FRA Ret	GBR 8	GER 7	AUT Ret	NED 9	ITA Ret	BEL 7	EUR 10	RSA 5	AUS 6		Arrows	20th	3
1986	Benetton	BRA 6	ESP 6	SMR 3	MON Ret	BEL 10	CAN Ret	USA Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 10	HUN Ret	AUT 7	ITA 5	POR Ret	MEX 1	AUS Ret		Benetton	7th	17
1987	Ferrari	BRA 4	SMR Ret	BEL Ret	MON 4	USA 4	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	AUT Ret	ITA 4	POR 2	ESP Ret	MEX Ret	JPN 1	AUS 1		Ferrari	5th	36
1988	Ferrari	BRA 2	SMR 5	MON 2	MEX 3	CAN Ret	USA Ret	FRA 4	GBR 9	GER 3	HUN 4	BEL Ret	ITA 1	POR Ret	ESP 6	JPN 4	AUS Ret		Ferrari	3rd	41
1989	Ferrari	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON Inj	MEX Ret	USA Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 2	POR 1	ESP 2	JPN Ret	AUS Ret		Ferrari	7th	21
1990	McLaren	USA Ret	BRA 2	SMR 2	MON 3	CAN 4	MEX 3	FRA 5	GBR 14	GER 3	HUN 16	BEL 3	ITA 3	POR 4	ESP Ret	JPN Ret	AUS 4		McLaren	4th	43
1991	McLaren	USA Ret	BRA 3	SMR 2	MON Ret	CAN Ret	MEX Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 2	GER 4	HUN 4	BEL 2	ITA 4	POR Ret	ESP Ret	JPN 1	AUS 3		McLaren	4th	43
1992	McLaren	RSA 5	MEX 4	BRA Ret	ESP 4	SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 1	FRA Ret	GBR 5	GER Ret	HUN 3	BEL Ret	ITA 4	POR 2	JPN 2	AUS 1		McLaren	5th	49
1993	Ferrari	RSA 6	BRA Ret	EUR Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 6	MON 14	CAN 4	FRA 14	GBR Ret	GER 6	HUN 3	BEL 10	ITA Ret	POR Ret	JPN Ret	AUS 5		Ferrari	8th	12
1994	Ferrari	BRA Ret	PAC 2	SMR Ret	MON 3	ESP Ret	CAN 4	FRA 3	GBR Ret	GER 1	HUN 12	BEL Ret	ITA 2	POR Ret	EUR 5	JPN Ret	AUS 2		Ferrari	3rd	41
1995	Ferrari	BRA 3	ARG 6	SMR 3	ESP 3	MON 3	CAN Ret	FRA 12	GBR Ret	GER 3	HUN 3	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR 4	EUR Ret	PAC 4	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	Ferrari	6th	31
1996	Benetton	AUS 4	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	EUR 9	SMR 3	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 4	GBR 2	GER 13	HUN Ret	BEL 6	ITA Ret	POR 6	JPN 4		Benetton	6th	21
1997	Benetton	AUS 4	BRA 2	ARG 6	SMR Ret	MON 9	ESP 10	CAN Inj	FRA Inj	GBR Inj	GER 1	HUN 8	BEL 6	ITA 7	AUT 10	LUX 4	JPN 8	EUR 4	Benetton	5th	27

* Ineligible for points.

External links

•  • [ e] Scuderia Toro Rosso
Personnel: Franz Tost | Gerhard Berger | Alex Hitzinger Current drivers: Vitantonio Liuzzi | Sebastian Vettel Formula One cars: STR1 | STR2