Austrian racing driver Gerhard Berger: biography and sports career

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Gerhard Berger is a famous Austrian racing driver who competes in Formula 1 for various teams. Repeatedly was the winner and prize-winner at the stages of the competition.

Gerhard Berger. Talented debutant

He was born in August 1959 in the Austrian city of Worgl. He began his professional career in motor racing under the auspices of the Alfa Romeo company, where he showed very good results.

Soon, Gerhard Berger moved to the more prestigious Formula 3, where he successfully competed with the famous Italian Ivan Capelli in the fight for the title of champion of the continent. In 1984, Berger was invited to the German Formula 1 team - ATS. In his debut race at his native Austrian track, Gerhard showed only the twelfth result.

More successful was the performance at the Italian Grand Prix, held at the famous circuit in Monza. Gerhard Berger, in competition with eminent and more experienced pilots, managed to finish sixth. Unfortunately, due to not being included in the official application for the championship, the Austrian rider did not receive points for this achievement.

Car accident and first successes

1985 began very badly for the young Gerhard Berger, whose photo can be seen in the article. He got into a car accident, as a result of which he broke the cervical vertebrae. Despite this, he quickly recovered and returned to Formula 1, where he began to drive for a new team - Arrows.

After four unsuccessful stages in which the Austrian could not reach the finish line, he began to show relatively good results. And at the last two Grand Prix (in South Africa and Australia) he managed to get into the points zone.

In 1986, Gerhard Berger is a racing driver representing the Italian Benetton team. After finishing in the points at the Brazilian and Spanish Grands Prix, the Austrian took third place for the first time in San Marino and climbed to the podium.

But the best results were yet to come. At the Mexican Grand Prix, Berger confidently de alt with the famous Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna and won the Formula 1 stage for the first time. Thanks to these results, he received an invitation to play for one of the most famous companies - Ferrari.

New victories and achievements

During his three seasons with Ferrari, Gerhard Berger won the Grand Prix four times and was in the top three seven times. In the 1988 season, he scored 41 points and took his record third place overall.

However, in the next championship, he often had problems with the car. At the stage in San Marino, as a result of an accident, his car caught fire,and only in time rescuers arrived in time saved the pilot from serious consequences.

After a series of failures, Gerhard Berger in 1990 signed a contract with the British auto stable "McLaren", in which he was paired with the legendary Ayrton Senna. Remaining a bit in the shadow of the Brazilian, the Austrian driver showed consistently high results, regularly scored points and consistently ranked among the top five Formula 1 drivers.

In 1993 Berger returned to the Ferrari stable. For a year and a half, Gerhard could not win, ending this series only at the German Grand Prix in 1994. He disappointingly missed another victory at one of the turns of the stage in Australia, where Nigel Mansell successfully took advantage of the Austrian's mistake. At the end of the season, Berger repeated his record, finishing third overall.

Return to Benetton and retirement

Next. After another season at Ferrari, Gerhard Berger decided to return to the Benetton team in search of new victories. However, here, too, periodic failures continued to haunt him. At the stage in Germany, just a few laps before the finish line, his car ignited and burned out the engine.

In 1997, in his last Formula 1 season, the Austrian race car driver missed three races due to a severe form of sinusitis, and then returned and won a brilliant victory at the German Grand Prix. It was the last triumph not only for Gerhard Berger, but also for Benetton.

Feeling serious competition from young pilots, the racing driver decided to end his sports career at the end of the season. So he did.

Life after sports

In the same year, Gerhard Berger became the head of the new BMW Sauber project for Formula 1, and then co-owner of the Scuderia Toro Rosso team. In addition to running a business, he wrote an autobiographical book, The Finish Line, in which he described his entire sports career.