Gerhard Berger compares his fiery Imola crash to Grosjean's Bahrain accident

Gerhard Berger compares his fiery Imola crash to Grosjean’s Bahrain accident. Gerhard Berger reflects on his fiery Imola crash.

Berger brannte 1989: "Du gehst nie wieder ans Limit!" - Formel 1 | heute.at

In the world of motorsport, flames are always the worst of signs. In an accident, the emergence of fire is inevitably a major cause of fears for the health and safety of all those involved. At the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, Formula 1 unfortunately returned to rediscover the fear of fire with the accident of Romain Grosjean. The French driver, at the time driving for Haas, was caught in the fire for 28 seconds before being able to get out of his cockpit, thanks to the help of the safety officers who saved his life. Fortunately, Formula 1 had not witnessed such a scene for years.

One of the most famous fires in the history of sport – again fortunately ended only with a huge fright – is the one that involved the Austrian Gerhard Berger at Imola in 1989, at the wheel of a Ferrari. Also on that occasion, after a violent impact, the car caught fire and only the intervention of the CEA ‘lions’ saved Gerhard Berger from a much more tragic ending. Interviewed during an episode of the podcast ‘In the Fastlane’, the current boss of the DTM compared his dramatic moment at Imola with Romain Grosjean’s last year incident in Sakhir.

“I think my accident was a lot tougher in a way, because I was a lot faster and came in a pretty bad corner. His angle was also bad, but mine was against a concrete wall that doesn’t move at all” – Gerhard Berger explained. The former Ferrari driver, however, also highlighted how the greatest danger for Romain Grosjean was due to the breaking of the barrier: “He was lucky in having a tire barrier in front. But then he broke through the protective barriers and this is one of the most dangerous things that can happen” – the former Ferrari driver explained.

According to Gerhard Berger, therefore, paradoxically in the accident involving the French driver, the real danger was not represented by the fire: “I was not so shocked by the fire, because you survive the fire for a while. It takes some time before you are done. But opening the guardrail and walking through it usually means you have no chance of surviving. I have to say I wasn’t the biggest Halo fan when it arrived. But in this case it certainly saved his life.” – the former Ferrari driver concluded.