Gerhard Berger

Berger, pictured in 1987.

Gerhard Berger (born 27th August, 1959 in Wörgl, Austria) is an Austrian former racing driver who won the Formula One World Championship in 1987 and 1990.

Formula One

1987-1992: McLaren

By 1987, Berger was driving for Marlboro McLaren International alongside French prospect Jérémy-Étienne Voeckler. Berger's season got off to a good start in Australia, taking the flag ahead of season-long rival Brendon Cassidy. However, it seemed that reliability was a serious issue for Berger's side of the McLaren garage, as he'd go on a seven race streak of retirements before a second place finish in Hungary and a win in Yugoslavia.

Cassidy appeared to be in the box seat heading into the last few races of the season, but in the end Berger was able to score the wins when they were needed and managed to take victory in the last two races - winning the title with a single point.

The following year, Berger and Voeckler remained at McLaren and had the opportunity to pilot the innovative MP4-4. Barring a slight challenge from the Ferrari pair of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, the McLaren duo were the main protagonists in the title battle. The pair swapped the title lead over the course of the season, with Berger having the initial edge over Voeckler for most of the year. Berger finished the season on top with 84 points but with only the 11 best points finishes counted towards the world championship, Voeckler would be the 1988 champion despite scoring less.

In 1989, Voeckler jumped ship to the more promising Williams outfit - and Berger was joined at McLaren by Teo Fabi. Despite the chronic unreliability of the new Honda V10 engines, Berger again challenged for the title, this time against Ferrari driver Ayrton Senna, with both taking five wins but Senna winning the title by a comfortable 15 point margin over Berger. Fabi's lacklustre performance alongside Berger also resulted in the Italian being fired, his replacement being Alessandro Nannini, who proved to be far closer pace-wise to Berger than Fabi had been, and would be retained alongside the Austrian into 1990.

Berger was able to capitalise on the MP4-5B's improved reliability in 1990, taking 4 wins and battling Arrows driver Chris Dagnall during the season to take his second world championship with an ultimately comfortable 21 point margin.

Nannini was injured in a helicopter crash and replaced by American Brendon Cassidy for the last two races of the season, with the pair remaining in situ for 1991. McLaren were a dominant force that year, but Cassidy would ultimately pip Berger to the title by 19 points - the Austrian suffering more reliability issues.

Complete Formula One World Championship Grand Prix Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1987	Marlboro McLaren International	McLaren MP4/3	Honda RA167E 1.5 V6t	AUS 1	SMR 5	BEL Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	DET Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 2	YUG 1	ITA Ret	POR 4	EUR Ret	JPN 1	MEX 1		1st	47
1988	Honda Marlboro McLaren	McLaren MP4/4	Honda RA168E 1.5 V6t	BRA Ret	SMR 4	MON 4	MEX 1	CAN 3	DET 1	FRA 1	GBR 2	GER 3	HUN 1	YUG 2	SOV 4	ITA 1	BEL 3	JPN Ret	AUS 2		2nd	75 (84)
1989	Honda Marlboro McLaren	McLaren MP4/5	Honda RA109A 3.5 V10	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	FRA 1	USA Ret	CAN 1	GBR 2	GER 1	HUN Ret	SOV 1	POR Ret	ITA 4	BEL 1	JPN 4	AUS Ret	MEX Ret		2nd	58
1990	Honda Marlboro McLaren	McLaren MP4/5B	Honda RA109E 3.5 V10	USA 2	BRA 2	PAC 2	SMR Ret	MON 3	CAN 1	MEX 1	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 2	HUN 3	BEL 1	ITA 1	POR 4	JPN 2	AUS Ret		1st	77
1991	Honda Marlboro McLaren	McLaren MP4/6	Honda RA121E 3.5 V12	USA 2	BRA 3	PAC Ret	SMR 1	MON 3	CAN 1	MEX 1	FRA 1	GBR 2	GER Ret	HUN 2	BEL 8	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP Ret	JPN 1	AUS‡ Ret	2nd	76