Gerhard Berger
Gerhard Berger was one of the era's most respected drivers and, as Ayrton Senna's McLaren teammate, one half of a legendary practical-joke rivalry that masked a genuinely close friendship — one profoundly tested by Senna's death at Imola in 1994. Berger went on to run BMW's Formula 1 engine programme and later co-owned Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Gerhard Berger made his Formula 1 debut with Tyrrell in 1984 and went on to win ten grands prix across spells with Arrows, Ferrari, McLaren, and Benetton over a fourteen-season career. His most famous years came as Ayrton Senna's teammate at McLaren from 1990 to 1992, a partnership remembered as much for an elaborate, years-long practical joke rivalry between the two as for their on-track results.
That friendship made Senna's death at Imola in 1994 particularly difficult for Berger, who was racing for Ferrari at the time and had remained close to Senna since their McLaren years together. He has spoken candidly in later interviews about the depth of that loss, describing it as one of the defining moments of his life in the sport. Notably, Berger himself had survived a serious fiery crash at the same circuit five years earlier, in 1989, recovering within weeks despite burns to his hands.
After retiring as a driver in 1997, Berger moved into senior motorsport management, running BMW's Formula 1 programme through the mid-2000s and later taking a 50% ownership stake in Scuderia Toro Rosso alongside Red Bull. Few former drivers of his generation have combined a top-level driving career with as substantial a subsequent role in running teams and manufacturer programmes.
5 Things You Might Not Know
Berger and Senna, teammates at McLaren from 1990 to 1992, developed one of the paddock's most famous ongoing pranks rivalries — stories widely reported over the years include Berger throwing Senna's briefcase, with its contents, off a hotel balcony, and filling Senna's hotel room with live frogs. Far from damaging their relationship, the pranks reflected and helped cement a genuinely close friendship between two very different personalities.
Berger, by then racing for Ferrari, was among those most personally affected within the paddock by Senna's fatal accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, having spent three seasons as his closest teammate and friend. He has spoken in interviews over the years about how profoundly the loss affected him, describing Senna as one of the most important relationships of his career and life.
Five years before Senna's fatal accident at the same circuit, Berger himself survived a violent, fiery crash during the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola's Tamburello corner, suffering burns to his hands but escaping otherwise unhurt. He returned to racing within a matter of weeks, a remarkably fast recovery given the severity of the accident.
After retiring as a driver, Berger became BMW's motorsport director, overseeing the manufacturer's Formula 1 involvement, first as an engine supplier and then through the BMW Sauber works team, a senior management role that drew on his decades of firsthand racing and engineering experience.
Berger held a 50% ownership stake in Scuderia Toro Rosso, Red Bull's junior F1 team, for several years in the mid-2000s, giving him a direct ownership role in the sport well beyond his driving career and reflecting the trust placed in him by Red Bull's leadership as a fellow Austrian and respected former driver.