NIGEL ROEBUCK’S HEROES
Nigel on Gerhard Berger
This was Gerhard Berger, responding to my question: was he happy in his current team? There was a time, before the tentacles of PR tightened, when racing drivers were fun to interview, and none more than the irreverent Gerhard, who – like Niki Lauda – always gave you straight answers.
Why did he live in Monaco? The sun, the blue of the Mediterranean, the security…? “No, for the same reason as everyone else – tax!”
I remember Berger’s first Formula 1 start, at the Osterreichring in 1984. His ATS wasn’t much of a car, but it did have BMW’S muscular turbo engine, and when the lights went out he blasted away in a series of lurid slides. “You looked out of control,” I said. “Not surprising,” he grinned. “I was!”
From the beginning Gerhard belonged in the ‘abnormally brave’ category; the speed was always there, and after a first full season with Arrows in 1985 he joined Benetton-bmw for 1986, taking his first grand prix victory in Mexico.
It was the last year of unbridled power in the turbo era, when drivers raced with more than 1000 horsepower, and qualified with up to 1500. Alain Prost always said 1986 was his favourite season. Berger concurred.
“Yes, the cars were the best then, when boost was free. You had the throttle delay, you had to keep the boost up, you had to keep the wheels from spinning too much... and of course you had an unbelievable push forward.”
Most drivers missed the instant engine response, but Berger wasn’t one of them. “No, I liked that! I liked the fact that you turned into a corner, and almost immediately you were on full throttle for the power you wanted 50 metres later! I loved the turbo era, particularly with qualifying boost – wheelspin in top gear at the top of the hill at Monaco, even in the dry...”
For 1987 Berger got the call from Maranello, and even though turbo boost was reduced now, that year’s Ferrari [the F1/87] would remain his favourite car.
“It just suited me so well. I won at Suzuka, and then in Adelaide I got pole position, and led from the start, but I had a fever that weekend, and it was also very hot. [Ayrton] Senna started catching me, so I put the boost up to make him think I could easily respond, and it worked – he backed off. I really wanted to beat him – and also I was in the middle of doing a new contract!”
Ah yes, contracts. Among today’s drivers Sebastian Vettel is unique not only in side-stepping social media, but also in not employing a manager, something he learned from Berger. “Why pay a percentage to someone else?” Gerhard said. “I always did my own deals, and I think maybe I earned more than anyone else in Formula 1 over those years…”
After three seasons with Ferrari, which included a victory at Monza, for 1990 Berger accepted Ron Dennis’s offer to join Mclaren. Was life difficult as Senna’s team-mate? “No,” he replied, “it was OK.” Pause. “Once you understood you couldn’t beat him, it was OK!” Gerhard learned a great deal from Senna, but believes that Ayrton, too, benefited from their partnership.
“As people, we were entirely different, which is probably why we became friends. For sure, he had strengths where I didn’t, but it was true the other way round, too. I could easily separate working
Berger helped Senna to separate
time from free time, but Ayrton couldn’t do that, and I think I made him even stronger, because he became more free – for one thing, he discovered a sense of humour...”
After three years, though, Gerhard concluded that he had to make a move. “Ron [Dennis] always believed that he ran Mclaren, but he didn’t – it was Senna’s team, and when Ferrari asked me to go back, I accepted.”
For Berger, and team-mate Jean Alesi, though, Maranello pickings were thin, the cars never really on the pace. In his second spell with Ferrari, Gerhard won only once, and then (in Germany in 1994) by attrition. Against his nature he now took fewer risks, after a huge accident at Imola in 1989 which he was lucky to survive. At the end of 1995, Berger swapped places with Michael Schumacher, and returned to Benetton.
Initially things did not go well. “I just couldn’t drive the car
– and Schumacher had just won the championship with it! The problem was that everything was geared to suit Michael’s way of driving – and a car set up for him was exactly the opposite of what I liked. It took a while to convince people, to get their attention.”
As well as that, Berger’s health was not the best at that time. Early in 1996 he contracted pneumonia, which took a lot of getting over. “Fortunately I trained a lot before I got it – otherwise I’m not sure I could have done the first races that year. I felt weak, empty, no power. Already I had some virus in my body…”
This blighted the last part of Gerhard’s career, and centred around his sinuses. During the winter preceding the 1997 season he had surgery, then missed three races: Canada, France and Britain.
GERHAR D BERGER
Every kind of rumour about his health swept the paddock at that time, and many suggested Berger was washed up. It was a terrible time – made worse when his father was killed in a light aircraft accident shortly before Gerhard returned to racing at Hockenheim.
This was the old track with long flat-out stretches and quick chicanes: after starting from pole position, Berger dominated the German Grand Prix. “He may be the oldest guy in F1,” commented Martin Brundle, “but he’s still the bravest…”
“That was my best race,” said Berger. “All weekend I felt I was somewhere else – this speed was just coming, coming, and I didn’t know from where! There was so much in my mind... losing my father, and also the fact that no one believed in me any more.
It was time to remind everyone of what I could do.
“I already knew I was stopping at the end of the year, and actually what I wanted to do was go to the podium and say bye-bye – but then I realised how much money I was going to lose!”
Unlike some, Berger charged right to the end, finishing fourth in his final race, at Jerez, and within two seconds of winner Mika Häkkinen. “I didn’t want to go out like a wanker,” Gerhard smiled. “I wanted to remember my last race well.”
In the course of 14 seasons, Berger drove in 210 GPS, and qualified first or second for 32 of them. That being so, one might have expected he would have won more than ten. He didn’t disagree. “Yes, with the talent I had, I really should have done more. OK, there were races I should have won, and didn’t, like Estoril in 1987, when I spun under pressure from Prost, but things like that happen. What I’m really talking about is being just too busy in my young years – at Monza recently I thought, ‘Why didn’t you rent a house here, stay close to Ferrari, learn Italian?’, but it was always much more important for me to get back to a girl somewhere! Generally, I’m not someone who regrets a lot…”