Not very good driver has trouble controlling fast racing car, story at 11.
STATISTICS
Wins: | 0 (0%) | |
Podiums: | 2 (1.9%) | |
Pole positions: | 0 (0%) | |
Championships: | 0 (0%) | |
Best result: | 3rd | |
Best grid position: | 6th (1994 Belgian Grand Prix) | |
Seasons: | 8 | |
Events: | 107 | |
Starts: | 107 | |
Points: | 17 (0.2 points per race avg) | |
Laps raced: | 3987 | |
Laps led: | 0 ) (0%) | |
Fastest laps: | 0 (0%) | |
Retirements: | 58 (54.2%) | |
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This is Gerhard Bergers description of his first days at Benetton in 1996, from his book "Zielgerade". (pardon the tranlsation)
"You arrive at your new team like in a new office, shaking hands, wlooking around, let them show you all, get an initial feeling: so then thats the flavour at Benetton.
They are great in the big things, clearly, otherwise they wouldn't have been world champion twice. They are not so great in, for instance, carpets. The floor is rather felts, and the whole room is smelling for cigarettes and everyone is putting down his coffee cup on the massage table.
[...]
But before it came to the first massage in the Benetton motor home, I already threw away the world championship car.
The car had simply gone off - and away it was - faster than I could watch. It was at the first test in Estoril and the crash was that terrible, that we had three days delay, because they had to send the car to England.
All laughed and patted me on the shoulder "hey, your first Benetton crash" as if it was a good omen. It rained when the repaired car came back, we waited but then decided to go out in the rain just to get a bit more familiar with the car.
In the third lap it went off with the backside head-on into the armcos. Again scrap.
The laugh from the first crash was a thinner grin now.
My team mate Alesi waved goodbye as often as me but had always a free run-off area while spinning, so he didn't demolish anything.
The next test was in Barcelona. I started the thing very calm and analytical. Like at the first Estoril day I had no bad feeling with the car. There was just a full second missing, so I had to close up on the limit.
Next crash.
Of course, this one was nothing but embarrassing, and I could read a certain desire for Schumacher in the faces of the engineers and the mechanics.
The thought exchange with my new boss wasn't fruitful too. Flavio Briatore swept away all issues with terrific superficiality. He may talked about technique, but while he talked you had the suspicion he couldn't distinguish between a steering wheel and a car wheel. He has absolutely nothing of racing in his blood, he simply lives for marketing, preferably his own.
[...]
The most solid component was the Renault engine at the height of its maturity. The performance of the frenchmen was a modern translation of the Honda leadership in the previous generation. They were not simply obsessed with power and revs, but had a very fine feeling for the driveability of the engine in the farest way. They also had a lot of sporting mind, by far exceeding
techniques and statistics of success.
In any case the engine was not the problem. To our chief engineers I said something like "
I went off three times now and accept the blame, but it should be clear to you that the car has a problem and it would be nice if you could turn on your computers once more".
The mystery indeed could be encircled. On bumps while at full speed the car went "in stall", like an aircraft which abruptly loses all its aerodynamic effect. If the bump was in a fast corner the car could go into snap oversteer. This feature of the Benetton was certainly not unknown. Johnny Herbert went off a few times in 1995 and then simply didn't dare to step at this limit. And Michael Schumacher had something like a supernatural reflex for this situation. He later explained it to me: He automatically anticipated the countersteer on the bump, he had already memorized this procedure in himself.
This was the point where I couldn't stay reserved against Michael Schumacher: Someone who had the sovereign knack on this car even at the limit must have been absolutely in a class by himself."
Some pages later he said with regard to his little feud with Michael he had at that time:
"The final point of return came when I took over his car, the Benetton from the end of the 1995 season.
I thought 'oh my god, he won the world championship with this car!' That simply wasn't a car in which you win a world championship, this could be managed only by someone really special. Then I knew the guy was alright and didn't hesitate to tell this everyone who wanted to hear it."