After Retirement From Racing
A hugely popular figure in Formula One, Berger was up until 2003 regularly seen in the pitlane in his new capacity as Competitions Director at BMW, overseeing their successful return to Formula One in 2000.
Berger was the first to drive a F1 car on the new Shanghai Grand Prix circuit when he demonstrated a 2003 Ferrari F2003-GA.
On 25 April 2004; 10 years after Senna's death, Berger drove the JPS Lotus Renault 97T which Ayrton used in the 1985 championship for 3 laps, at Imola before the start of the 2004 San Marino Grand Prix.
In February 2006, he acquired 50% of Scuderia Toro Rosso in a business deal which saw Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz purchase half of Berger Logistik, a road haulage company founded by Berger's father Johann in 1961. His Toro Rosso team won their first Grand Prix with Sebastian Vettel taking the win. He sold his share back to Mateschitz in November 2008.
Read more about this topic: Gerhard Berger
Famous quotes containing the words retirement and/or racing:
“The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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