Gerhard Berger

Now in his 14th year of F1 racing, Berger is one of the elder statesmen of the sport. His career began in saloon cars in 1979. In 1981 he competed in the Alfasud European Cup (finishing 7th) before moving onto F3 the next year. Berger spent 3 years in F3 and at the end of 1984 broke into F1 with ATS. He competed in 4 races that season gaining 1 point for a 6th place at the Italian GP. Berger signed with Arrows for the 1985 season and has been a permanent feature of F1 ever since driving for Benetton (86), Ferrari (87-89), McLaren (90-92) and Ferrari again (93-95).

Although he has never managed to win it all, Berger has had several successful seasons. His best championship finish was 3rd in 1988, his best points total was 49 in '92 which was only good enough for 5th place. He has a total of 9 wins in his career with a high of 2 in a season in 87 and 92. '95 was a disappointing year finishing 6th with 31 points. For the '96 season Berger returned to Benetton, the team for whom he scored his, and Benetton's, first GP win in Mexico in '86. 96 was not so kind though and an unreliable car, designed around Schumacher's driving style, left Berger in 6th place in the championship without a win - although he was leading at Hockenheim with only a few laps to go when his engine blew.