@McLaren there was also this race which was quite significant, the
1988 Italian Grand Prix where Berger and Alboreto finished 1-2 not long after old Enzo himself died. It was also the only race Mclaren did not win in that season. It was quite a special event for any Ferrari fan.
It was indeed. For those unaware, the McLaren MP4/4 dominated the season, the rules were changing for 1989 - turbos were out and the regs mandated that the drivers feet were behind the front axle line (to reduce injury in accidents) which quite quite a significant chassis change.
McLaren went all out for the '88 season and it paid back big time - 15/16 pole positions (the exception being Silverstone, taken by Berger), 15/16 wins and a whole slew of fastest laps. At Monaco Senna qualified 1.4 seconds faster than Prost in the other McLaren, who himself was 1.2 seconds faster than Berger in P3. After qualifying Senna made his infamous "out of body experience" comment.
Anyway, at Monza Senna was on pole, Prost 2nd. From the off Prost's engine had a misfire but he pushed it all the way to lap 35 when it finally expired. Berger and Alboreto in the Ferraris set about chasing Senna and did make inroads to Senna's lead, who uncharactistically appeared to be pacing himself to the finish. 2 laps from the end Senna made to lap Jean-Louis Schelsser in the Williams at the Rettifilo chicane. Schlesser lost control, locked up and slid in to Senna, pushing him in to retirement. The Tifosi went crazy and Berger scored what must have been his biggest win.
Despite the McLaren domination that year, its interestiing to read the stats as Berger was often "best of the rest".
Incidentally, Schlesser was in the Williams because Mansell had caught chicken pox, Martin Brundle had been standing in, but on this occasion Tom Walkinshaw who was running the Jaguar team in the World Sportscar Championship vetoed Martin driving that weekend - probably because of the 1000km of Spa the next weekend.
Tamburello was always a dodgy corner, this crash (caused by front wing failure) left Berger with burns (causing him to miss the next race) - he was lucky it wasn't worse.
Berger was (is?) a prankster - he's always credited with not takig life too seriously. In part, some put this down to a road car accident he was in, just after breaking in to F1. He broke his neck in the accident and alarmed team owner Jackie Oliver no end because not only did he call Jackie when rumoured to have died in the accident he then insisted on meeting to discuss next year's contract with his neck in a plaster support. His neck was so weak the muscles couldn't even hold his head up, much less undertake the stresses of an F1 car.
Berger became team mate to Senna in 1990 and despite their very different approaches to life became friends. Of course, Ayrton became the victim of Berger's pranks. At one race Gerhard managed to collect a number of frogs and distributed them around Senna's room. Senna spent half the night looking for them and (some say somewhat irately) approached Berger at breakfast, Gerhard nonchalantly asked if he had found the snake yet ? Senna got his own back by stuffing smelly cheese in the air vent for Berger's room.
Another tit for tat was when Berger got hold of Senna's passport and replaced the picture with one of (according to Ron Dennis) a picture of male genitalia. Red faced Senna was detained in Argentina whilst the issue was resolved, the retaliation was to glue Berger's credit cards together.
Probably the best known incident was Senna's all new carbon fibre briefcase, which he'd been sold under the premise it was indestructable - Senna bored Berger silly with talk of the briefcase, so whilst in a helicopter having been told it was indestructable for the millionth time, Berger said "Lets see!" and promptly threw it out!
The more serious side was that Senna, concerned about safety urged his friend to speak up, not wanting to do so himself. In 1990 the two men made an inspection of Imola and remembering the crash in the video (and others) they decided to ask about moving the barrier back at Tamburello. On a track walk they went to the barrier to find a river behind it - it would be impossible to move the barrier backwards. Little did they know it'd take Senna's life a little over four years later.
Berger may not have been on the top tier of talent with Prost and Senna (a rare accolade), but he was a tough, gritty racer who was seen as a dependable, safe pair of hands that would bring the car home. He was later involved with Toro Rosso for a short period of time.
