Gerhard Berger, during his racing days, had a unique strategy to beat his teammates. The strategy involved exploiting the weaknesses of his teammates. However, for Berger, while he was racing alongside Ayrton Senna, he found no weaknesses in the latter and it baffled him, to say the least.
Speaking about this, Tom Rubython quoted Berger in his book, The Life of Senna: The Biography of Ayrton Senna, “During my three years with Ayrton at McLaren, I was thinking at how I was going to beat this guy. Usually, you always find a weakness in a teammate and I would work on this weakness, increase this weakness, but not with him.”
Following this, Berger added, “Ayrton Senna, my friend, was strong in qualifying, unbelievably quick in the racing – consistently quick in lapping, quick in the rain, quick on the quick circuits, and quick on the street circuits. Every day I was racing, I was thinking, ‘Sh*t how am I going to beat this guy.'”
Gerhard Berger’s trouble against Ayrton Senna in McLaren.
Credit: The Life of Senna : The Biography of Ayrton Senna, by Tom Rubython. pic.twitter.com/3LWaMaZe9t
— TheF1Guy (@Sabyasaachii) December 17, 2023
Berger and Senna were teammates at McLaren between the 1990 and 1992 F1 seasons. In these three seasons, Senna took the championship in both 1990 and 1991, while Berger finished in P4 in both years. However, the 1992 season saw the Brazilian finish in P4 and take one point more than Berger in P5.
This showed that the former Brazilian driver was untouchable in McLaren, at least for Berger at that point in time. However, there was an amicable relationship between the two. While Senna taught Berger how to race, the Austrian in return helped bring a jolly mood for the three-time world champion and McLaren with his humor.
How did Gerhard Berger’s entry change things for Ayrton Senna in McLaren?
Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s rivalry is very well-known at McLaren. The duo are often regarded as arch-rivals and gifted the sport a rivalry to remember. Therefore, the relationship between the duo was often very tense.
After Prost left the team for Ferrari, Berger joined McLaren from the Italian outfit in return, making it a perfect swap for both drivers. As Berger arrived in the Woking-based outfit, his relationship with Senna became even more strong.
#OnThisDay in 1992, Ayrton Senna raced to victory at the Hungarian GP.
P3 for Gerhard Berger secured the team’s first double podium of that season. pic.twitter.com/V3GpTnepV3
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 16, 2021
Prior to this, Senna and Berger were already on good terms and enjoyed each other’s company in the late 1980s. The Austrian terms this as the James Bond era. On this, he said, “We had many great times together, especially at the end of the 1980s. I call them our ‘James Bond years.'”
Their union ended after Berger returned to Ferrari in 1993. All in all, Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger gave McLaren and the fans from those years numerous good times to remember.
