Gerhard Berger - Berger and Senna

Berger and Senna

During the years that Berger was at McLaren (1990–1992), he became most famous for his humorous side. Popular accounts tell of many ingenious practical jokes thought up by the Austrian to break through his serious, focused and unyielding teammate Ayrton Senna. Senna accepted the challenge and as both were spurred on by team manager Ron Dennis, the practical joking escalated.

Accounts tell of an incident at Monza where in a joint helicopter ride Senna had been showing off his new tailor-made briefcase. Having been made of carbon fibre composite, Senna argued that it was virtually indestructible. Berger opened the door of the helicopter and threw the briefcase out, to Senna's disbelief. Berger asserted innocently that he only sought to test the hypothesis.

Berger later recounted further events before the 1990 Australian Grand Prix. "After dinner, we started to throw people in the swimming pool, all dressed. As I was good at defending myself, I escaped from the bath, but many people got wet. Senna ran away to avoid us from getting him, however, later, I went to his room and he awkwardly threw a glass of water at me. For a Tyrolean, that was nothing, but it did mean that the game was now on. With a hose, we improvised an extension to the fire extinguisher and we put it under his room door at three in the morning. We invited some people to watch and when we pushed the lever, Senna flew out of the window like a rocket. It looked like a bomb had exploded inside the room. The confusion woke many people up, who started to scream at Senna for making so much noise. He was terribly embarrassed."

In an Australian hotel room Berger filled Senna's bed with animals. Senna understandably infuriated, confronted Berger, who replied, "Did you find the snake?" This incident prompted retaliation by Senna, who then proceeded to put a strong smelling French cheese in the air conditioning unit of Berger's room.

On another occasion, Senna and Brazilian compatriot Maurício Gugelmin decided to fill Berger's shoes with shaving foam on a fast train ride to a dinner in Japan. The Austrian was forced to attend the dinner wearing a tuxedo with running shoes. A further incident followed in which Berger replaced Senna's passport photo with what Ron Dennis described as "an equivalent-sized piece of male genitalia". Senna's fame meant he rarely had his passport checked, but on a later trip to Argentina Berger's prank resulted in officials holding the Brazilian for 24 hours. As a response to this gag, Senna superglued all of Berger's credit cards together.

Another incident occurred years later at Ferrari, when Berger and fellow F1 driver Jean Alesi were taking a ride with team director Jean Todt's new special made Lancia roadcar at the very first testing day of the 1995 Formula One season. Arriving at the test track, Jean Alesi lost control of the car when Berger unexpectedly pulled the handbrake. The car flipped, skidding upside down to a halt in front of the entrance. Alesi was sent to hospital. Later when Todt enquired about his roadcar, Berger conceded the two had put some "slight curb marks on the roof".

The strong connection between Senna and Berger has extended beyond the Brazilian's death in 1994. Berger later acted as an advisor to Bruno Senna, Ayrton's nephew, who made his Formula One debut with the HRT F1 Team in the 2010 World Championship, and subsequently switched to Williams.