Berger: Making Ferrari win again in F1

By:

Marcus Simmons

Aug 8, 2014, 10:32 PM

Ferrari brought Gerhard Berger back to drag it out of the doldrums in the 1990s. The Austrian tells MARCUS SIMMONS just how much work it took to turn the team into a winner again

Subscribe to PLUS Sign in

Gerhard Berger laughs. "The natural thing for a person is to forget things he didn't like," he says, "so half of the things I cannot remember!"

On that basis, it's probably fair to say that his memory of the 1993 Formula 1 season - which we're discussing - is, let's say about 25 per cent. And that's being generous.

comments

Marcus Simmons

Twitter

Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.