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Gerhard Berger

Robert Newman
Austrian Berger scored four of his 10 Formula One Grand Prix victories while wearing the fabled Italian Racing Red livery of Scuderia Ferrari.

The world held its breath on April 23, 1989, when Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari 640 went straight on at Imola’s Tamburello corner during the San Marino Grand Prix. The car slammed into a wall at an estimated 180 mph, spun wildly several times, slithered along the base of a group of advertising hoardings, stopped and burst into a ball of raging yellow and red flames.

The race carried on for the rest of the lap and then it was stopped. Horrified spectators at the circuit watched in muted silence as the fiery Ferrari with Gerhard still in it blazed savagely. Stunned television commentators scrambled for words to describe the potentially fatal holocaust as viewers across the world witnessed the high drama live. Tension was everywhere.

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