The careers of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger feel entwined, given their five Formula 1 seasons as team-mates and simultaneous moves from Ferrari to Benetton for 1996.
Berger rejoined Ferrari for 1993 after three years at McLaren, having previously spent three seasons at the Scuderia. Ironically, given the genial relationship that lay ahead, Alesi immediately viewed the arrival of Berger – by now an eight-time race winner as a big threat.
“I was shocked about this very bad season we had in 1992,” says Alesi. “But I was giving my maximum as always, to keep [morale in] the team up. When they signed Gerhard for ’93, he arrived as a doctor, you know, an experienced driver to fix the team, and that annoyed me a lot.
“Gazzetta dello Sport reported all the details of his contract as number one driver, so I complained to Niki [Lauda] and he was super as always. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘Jean, just ask for more money!’
“I said, ‘Niki, I don’t give a shit about money, I just want the same position and status as him in the team.’ So, he said he would talk to [Luca] di Montezemolo, and he came back the next day to tell me he’d arranged for me to be gifted an F1 car from 1992! I said, ‘Niki, that was not what I asked for…’ but it worked out OK.
“When we started work together on the track, I found Gerhard a very fair person, he was very straight. And this I liked. Of course, he was a great competitor, but he understood that this status as ‘number one’ was not really useful to him, so he never went to the team and demanded more testing or anything. We had equal treatment.”
Photo by: Ercole Colombo
Alesi was initially wary when Berger joined him at Ferrari for 1993
They started as team-mates in 77 grands prix from 1993 to 1997 (three years at Ferrari then both moved to Benetton in 1996 as Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine arrived). Between them they won three races, with Berger triumphing in Germany in 1994 and 1997 and Alesi’s sole career win in Canada 1995.
During their first season together, Alesi became all too aware of Berger’s penchant for practical jokes. And he found this to his cost when Berger pranked him one fateful day at the Fiorano test track.
“It’s a very popular story between our friends, because we have the Gerhard version and my version,” says Alesi. “My version is very easy: I was waiting in the office at the factory before I was due on track, and Gerhard…
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