Gerhard Berger
Gerhard Berger is an Austrian former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to. Berger won ten Formula One Grands Prix across 14 seasons.
Berger competed in Formula One for 14 seasons, twice finishing third overall in the championship in and with Ferrari. With 210 starts, Berger is amongst the most experienced Formula One drivers of all time. His first and last victories were also the first and last victories for the Benetton team, with eleven years separating them. He was also a race winner with Ferrari and with McLaren. When at McLaren, Berger drove alongside Ayrton Senna, contributing to the team's and constructors' titles. Berger retired in with ten wins, 12 pole positions, 21 fastest laps and 48 podiums in Formula One.
Berger returned to Formula One in as the co-owner of Toro Rosso, before selling his 50% share back to Red Bull at the end of the season.
Career
Early years
Gerhard Berger was born in Wörgl, Austria. His father Johann owned a truck company, which Gerhard worked at, later being promoted to driver. Berger, a multiple race winner in European Formula Three, moved up to Formula One in driving for the ATS team.Shortly after entering Formula One, Berger was fortunate to have survived a serious road accident. A week after the 1984 season ended, he was driving home in his BMW 323i through the hills above Salzburg. Suddenly his car was rammed from behind, resulting in it cartwheeling off a cliff. Berger was at that time not wearing a seatbelt, and was thrown clear of the BMW through the rear window. By chance the first car on the crash scene was occupied by two surgeons specialising in back injuries. The doctors realised the extent of his injuries and made sure he was not moved until special equipment arrived. Following emergency surgery, and a stay in hospital in Innsbruck, he made a full recovery.
A full season for Arrows followed in, though both Berger and teammate Thierry Boutsen were hampered by the Arrows A8 which was not the best chassis on the grid and did not allow either to exploit the immense power of the BMW M12 engine. Although he had some good drives, Berger would finish the season in 20th place having scored 3 points in the last two races of the year in South Africa and Australia.
File:Gerhard Berger 1986 Detroit.jpg|thumb|Berger driving for Benetton at the 1986 Detroit Grand Prix
It was not until joining Benetton in that his F1 career took off. Finally in a car that allowed him to exploit both his talent and the exceptional power of the BMW turbo engine, coupled with a clever Pirelli tyre strategy, Berger won his first Grand Prix in Mexico using the Benetton B186. Berger was also on course for an easy victory at his home race, the 1986 Austrian Grand Prix before being forced into the pits from a comfortable lead with a flat battery. Berger out-qualified teammate Teo Fabi 12–4 in 1986 though Fabi, who as a Rookie had qualified on the pole for the 1983 Indianapolis 500, took pole at the faster Österreichring and Monza circuits. Berger established himself as a very fast driver in Formula One that year, recording the fastest speed trap of the season, clocking an incredible 351.22 km/h at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. This remains the fastest straight line speed attained by a turbocharged car in the first turbo era.
Berger was also successful in Group A touring cars during this time, racing for the German Schnitzer BMW team, driving the BMW 635 Csi in the European Touring Car Championship. He won the 1985 Spa 24 Hours partnering Italian touring car ace Roberto Ravaglia and fellow Formula One driver, Marc Surer of Switzerland.
Until the mid-1980s when teams began stopping their drivers competing in other categories of racing, it was not uncommon for a Grand Prix driver to race in sports and touring cars. However, by 1985 Formula One drivers were not permitted race in any other category within 24 hours of the start of a Grand Prix. At the season ending 1985 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, Berger had to obtain permission from the FIA, FOCA, and from Arrows team to race in a Group A touring car race which was a support category for the weekend. He needed the permission as the Grand Prix was scheduled to start at 2 pm on Sunday, 3 November and the Group A race was to start at 3 pm on the Saturday. Driving an ex-Schnitzer BMW 635 CSi for Australian racing legend and millionaire Bob Jane, Berger qualified second on the grid but his race lasted just three laps before he was punted into the gravel trap at the end of the pit straight by the Holden Commodore V8 of local veteran John Harvey.
Ferrari
For the 1987 season, Berger signed for Ferrari, partnering the Italian Michele Alboreto and replacing Stefan Johansson. After mechanical failures robbed him of the chance to perform, Berger came on strongly in the latter half of 1987, winning the final two rounds of the season. The 1987 Ferrari F1/87 benefitted from the work of ex-McLaren designer John Barnard although the car was designed by Austrian Gustav Brunner. Ferrari were back competing for race honours for the first time since mid-1985 from the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards. Berger was running a close second to Nigel Mansell at the Hungaroring before he was forced to retire. At Estoril for the Portuguese Grand Prix Berger dominated the race from pole position before spinning in the latter stages to finish second after pressure from Alain Prost. The Austrian then looked to be heading for a second consecutive victory at the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit for the Mexican Grand Prix as he once again dominated the race but mechanical problems forced him to retire when leading. Success at both Suzuka and Adelaide for the Japanese and the Australian Grands Prix, including pole positions in both events and the fastest lap in Adelaide, ensured Ferrari and Berger went into the winter season with boosted confidence and both team and driver were tipped as favourites for the 1988 Championship. As he had done to Fabi in 1986, Berger out-qualified teammate Alboreto 12–4 in 1987. Berger's wins also gave Ferrari its first back to back victories since the late Gilles Villeneuve won the Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix in.File:Gerhard Berger 1988 Canada.jpg|thumb|left|Berger driving for Ferrari at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix
In, the McLaren team, with twice World Champion Alain Prost and the sensationally fast Ayrton Senna dominated the season, winning 15 of the 16 rounds. The Honda V6 turbo engine in the McLaren MP4/4, and Lotus's 100T had superior fuel efficiency to the Ferrari, which caused both Berger and Alboreto to often drive much slower than possible in races. Berger was the only driver to break the McLaren stranglehold in 1988, winning the Italian Grand Prix after Senna tangled with Jean-Louis Schlesser, who had temporarily replaced Nigel Mansell in the Williams-Judd. Alboreto made it a Ferrari 1–2, finishing only half a second behind the Austrian. This was a particularly poignant victory for the team, as it came just weeks after the death of Enzo Ferrari. Berger was also the only non-McLaren to take pole in 1988 when he sat on pole for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It was also the only race where both Ferrari cars were on the front row, with Alboreto qualifying only 0.199 behind his teammate.
The Ferrari F1/87/88C proved troublesome for both Berger and teammate Alboreto especially in terms of fuel consumption from the 1.5 litre turbo engine. At the very wet British Grand Prix for instance, Berger led the opening laps from Senna having already attained pole position, consequently building a large cushion over the rest of the field before having to slow just to finish. Ultimately he finished in ninth position, having fallen from fifth after running out of fuel coming out of the Woodcote chicane on the last lap, with Alboreto already having run out of fuel 3 laps from the finish. In the space of 200 metres, Berger was passed by Nelson Piquet, Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever and Riccardo Patrese. Both Ferrari drivers were often forced to use the lowest turbo boost setting they had and reduce their engine's revs in order to get the cars to the finish of a race. Until changes were made to the Ferrari's V6 engine late in the season, this meant that Berger and Alboreto were often vulnerable to attack from the leading atmospheric cars, with Berger estimating that he could often only use of the car's available during a race if he wanted to finish.
Berger was leading the final race of the season at Adelaide ahead of Prost and Senna before he clashed with former Ferrari driver René Arnoux in the Ligier while trying to lap the Frenchman. Before the race Berger, apparently with the full support of the team, told the McLaren drivers who qualified 1–2 in front of him that he was going to go all out and run as fast as he could without worrying about running out of fuel to give a good show for the fans. He did just that and after passing Senna for second on lap 3, he set numerous fastest laps before finally catching and passing Prost on lap 14. From there, he put some five seconds between himself and Prost before being taken out by Arnoux on lap 28. Berger out-qualified Alboreto in all 16 events for the 1988 Formula One calendar and in the eight races where they were both classified as finishers, finished behind Alboreto only once in France, spelling the end for the Italian after five seasons with the Maranello outfit.
For 1989, Berger was joined at Ferrari by Nigel Mansell. The Ferrari 640 with its V12 engine was fast but fragile, thanks in part to its revolutionary semi-automatic gearbox designed by John Barnard. At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Berger tangled with Senna at the first corner as the Brazilian found himself trapped between Riccardo Patrese's Williams-Renault to the left and Berger's Ferrari to the right, with the three drivers dicing for the lead. Berger was lucky to escape alive from a crash during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola's Tamburello corner, where he went straight on into the wall at almost. The car spun multiple times along the wall before catching fire. It took 16 seconds for a rescue crew to reach the Ferrari and put the fire out. Suffering remarkably few injuries, notably burns to his hands and some broken ribs, Berger was able to make it back to the cockpit at the Mexican Grand Prix after missing just the Monaco Grand Prix. Berger attributed this to Ferrari's unique semi-automatic paddle-shift gearbox, saying that his return would have been delayed if Ferrari still used the traditional gear stick transmission used in all other F1 cars in 1989.
With the exception of the Australian Grand Prix where both Ferrari drivers had poor qualifying sessions, Berger featured in the top four in qualifying and races in all of the remaining Grands Prix but poor reliability and accidents meant that he only finished three races all year. His first points of the year didn't come until he finished in second place in Round 12 at the Italian Grand Prix. He won the next race in Portugal which was overshadowed by the accident involving Mansell and Senna, and then finished second at the next race in Spain. These races were in fact his only points scored for the year but was still enough to give him 7th in the championship after being third in 1988. The improvement in form from Ferrari came too late though. At the British Grand Prix it was announced that Alain Prost would leave McLaren at the end of the season to join the Scuderia while Berger decided to sign for McLaren who, with their Honda V10 engines, was at the time the best and fastest team in Grand Prix racing.