Interview with Gerhard Berger for the Checco Costa Museum

Assisted by one of our interpreters, Dr. Costa recently interviewed former Formula 1 racing driver, Gerhard Berger.

A moment of the interview with Gerhard Berger

Dr. Costa, in fact, continues to gather memorabilia and memories from the most famous riders and drivers ever to compete at Imola as part of ongoing preparations for the museum dedicated to his father, the “Checco Costa” Museum inside the “Enzo and Dino Ferrari” racetrack complex, to be inaugurated on 1st May 2014. The museum has been conceived to provide long-lasting testimony not only to the history of the track itself but, above all, to the courageous giants of motor racing who made it so famous around the world.

The Imola race track has played a pivotal role in Berger’s life: it rewarded him with some crucial wins early on in his career yet was also the theatre of his terrifying accident on 23 April 1989 at the Tamburello corner – the same bend on which Ayrton Senna, a close friend of Gerhard’s, would lose his life just 5 years later.

Berger remembers nothing of the sixteen seconds in which he was trapped in the flame-engulfed car, an interminable 16 seconds in which even his helmet had begun to melt. Only later, thanks to video footage of the crash, would he realise just how smooth and fast the rescue operations had been, with fire fighters and doctors working quickly and efficiently to successfully save his life.

After those terrible accidents the Tamburello corner was modified to make the track safer by removing the boundary wall and inserting a less spectacular but safer chicane.