Berger still backing Ferrari, after all these years

Former Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger is still an adamant supporter of Ferrari and is backing the iconic Italian team to challenge Red Bull for the world championship again in the near future.

The 64-year-old Austrian driver first competed in F1 in 1984 and drove for ATS, Arrows and Benetton before alighting at Maranello in 1987 to drive alongside Michele Alboreto.

He left Ferrari in 1989 and joined McLaren, but returned to Ferrari for a second tour of duty from 1993 to 1995 before seeing out his final two seasons in the sport back at Benetton.

In total, Berger took part in 210 Grands Prix during his time in the sport, with ten wins and 12 pole positions to his credit before retiring at the end of 1997.

Even though two of his former teams are in contention to feature strongly in this year's championship, it's clear with which of them Berger's heart heart firmly remains to this day.

• Read also: Berger revisits assessment of Verstappen and Senna

“In Formula 1 things always turn out differently than you think,” Berger told Auto Motor und Sport in an interview this week, when asked what he expected to see this year after Red Bull's dominant 2023 season.

“If Red Bull keeps its team together like this, it will be difficult to catch up with them," he admitted. "It can only work if the others take radical steps.

“I still have the most confidence in Ferrari. They were better in the second half of last season than the results showed," he continued.

“You should never underestimate Mercedes and [Lewis] Hamilton, and McLaren is also doing a very good job," he added.

With such huge dominance of the sport by Red Bull, many fans have started complaining that F1 had become boring. But Berger doesn't agree with that assessment at all.

“We already said in Schumacher’s time, 'This can’t last long'" he said, recalling the seasons dominated by Ferrari and Michael Schumacher. "But such dominance also creates a certain enthusiasm, even for me.

“You just get caught up in perfection, that the driver doesn’t make any mistakes again, that the team completes every pit stop in the best time, that the car doesn’t stop again or the engine stops again.

“It’s fascinating and you just want to know whether it will be like that again next time," Berger argued.

Since retiring from competitive driving, Berger worked as competitions director at BMW F1, and briefly took a 50 per cent stake in Scuderia Toro Rosso with Dietrich Mateschitz.

From 2012 until 2014 Berger was president of the FIA Single Seat Commission and subsequently served as chairman of ITR, the promoter of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) series.

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