Vettel drives Berger’s 1988 Ferrari in Austria

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Sebastian Vettel got behind the wheel of a Ferrari F1 car at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, scene of the next round of the world championship.

Vettel swapped cars with former Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger. He drove a Ferrari F1-87/88C Berger raced in 1988 and took to victory in that year’s Italian Grand Prix.

Berger, who last raced in F1 in 1997, also had the chance to drive Vettel’s world championship-winning car from 2012, the Red Bull-Renault 2012.

“That is so pure, so direct,” said Vettel after driving the 1988 Ferrari F1-87/88C with its 1.5-litre turbocharged engine.

“Because of the lack of downforce you don’t get the curve speeds, but never mind, it has enough power anyway. It’s a lot of fun. Awesome!”

Gallery: Sebastian Vettel drives Gerhard Berger’s 1988 Ferrari in Austria

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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31 comments on “Vettel drives Berger’s 1988 Ferrari in Austria”

  1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    6th June 2014, 18:13

    Kimi, take care of your seat.

    1. @omarr-pepper

      Vettel vs. Alonso 2015.

      1. I think Vettel will come in once Alonso leaves. Otherwise he knows that he would be in Kimi’s position right now, which is being the number two even though your contract says “Equal”, and constantly giving Alonso first choice.

        I’m not dogging Fernando, but we all know that he is Ferrari’s guy, regardless of the other driver. And Vettel will want no.1 status with any team he goes to (he should).

        Vettel-Hulk 2016? I’d root for them

        1. I believe Alonso would lose 1st driver status if he got dominated like Massa or Raikkonen.

        2. Vettel-Hulk vs. Hamilton-Rosberg, in top cars, boy that would be a sight to see!

    2. Absolutely. Alonso-Berger partnership for 2015 methinks.

  2. @keithcollantine why isn’t the Webm “version” of the video available (at least not from the ViewTube Greasemonkey script)?

    I’m just curios (don’t worry I could actually watch the thing).

    1. My thought as well. I keep my Firefox browser Flash-free and had to open Chrome to view this video

  3. A Redbull helmet inside a Ferrari. Well that’s weird.

    1. The Renault badge at the visor is even weirder.

  4. Welcome to Ferrari, Vettel.

    1. Heaven.

  5. Very weird seeing Vettel in a Ferrari, I wonder if it’s the last time…

  6. That’s awesome ! very weird to see a driver driving a rival team’s car !

    And god those cars were beautiful ey?

    1. The ones they had the next two years were something else.
      But this 1988 Ferrari’s a good choice of car for Vettel to try – perfect for watching helplessly as two other cars disappear into the distance…

  7. I don’t see the three-digit number which usually appears on old Ferraris at promotional events, so I’m wondering whether Red Bull got access to the car by some other way? But Berger still managed to keep his Ferrari logos on his helmets even though matched with some Wings for Life sponsorship… I’d love to see rival teams co-operate for events like this!

    1. Maybe the car belongs to Gerhard? Unlike Mclaren Ferrari do give their drivers cars. (Massa has an F2008)

      1. Correct, this is Berger’s Monza 1988 car. It’s the same exact situation as with Massa’s Brazil 2008 car – Ferrari gifted it to him following the win.

        1. Never knew that, thanks guys! @jmc200 @pamphlet

  8. Beautiful scenery, big elevation changes, looking forward to this circuit now.

  9. “The brake on the right”? What is Vettel talking about, surely the brake pedal wasn’t on the right side?

    1. There is cluch in this Ferrari like in normal road cars, so he needed to brake with right foot.

    2. He means ‘right side of the steering column’, as opposed to modern cars which are set up for left foot braking – where the column now splits the two pedals.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L-FxxZcAJo

    3. He litterally says in german “right braking” as in with the right foot, like you do in a manual car with three pedals.

  10. Formula One cars that sound awesome… I remember those days.

    1. Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh…mentioning sound is frowned upon…

  11. They’d have felt pretty comfortable, since they could speak in German throughout the experience…:)

  12. isn’t this some sort of a message from Vettel? driving a car that won the only race in a season dominated by a way too strong team back in 1988, is it not what Vettel wants to be this year, stealing a win from the Mercedes?

  13. @Tifoso1989 posted a link to an article about this ‘event’ a couple of days ago. It is great to get a video too – with subtitles!
    I was originally a bit scornful about the Red Bull Ring race as I am totally not on board. But this looks a beautiful circuit and how can you not get excited about an old legend and a racer of today getting together to drive their cars?!
    I think some of you guys are reading too much into the Vettel sitting in a Ferrari thing- I don’t see that they are offering what he wants at the moment (a race winning car).
    I remember fondly that race in 1988 and I didn’t realise the Scuderia had given Gerhard the car. Cool.

  14. Eeeeeee! I’m going to be in Austria for the next race. :)

  15. Wasn’t this a sign of things to come.. :)

Comments are closed.