Welcome to another week of TheJudge13 #F1 Bar Exam.

Last week’s question(s): Can you name the driver, the car model and the race in which this accident happened. Who won the race?

The answer(s) I was looking for were: The driver in the photo is Gerhard Berger driving a Ferrari 640 during the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. The race was won by Ayrton Senna, the first race win for a V10 engine.

Gerhard Berger raced at Imola 13 times during his Formula One career. Out of that he had 6 finishes, 5 of which were on the podium, and one spectacular crash from which he managed to walk away, much to the shock of all those who saw it.

For the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix Berger had qualified in 5th but it was only on lap 3 that his Ferrari had a mechanical failure and speared him into the wall at the now infamous Tamburello corner at high speed. His car spun around and slid down the wall and as it came to a stop his full fuel tanks exploded and the car became engulfed in flames. It took the marshall’s only 16 seconds to get to his car, and another 10 seconds to extinguish the flames.

F1 doctor, Sid Watkins, was there shortly after the accident and Berger remembers regaining consciousness while Watkins was trying to intubate him (put a breathing tube into his lungs to breathe for him), Watkins himself also becoming soaked with fuel that was gushing everywhere. This race demonstrated the improvement of safety with the swift response from the circuit fire and rescue facilities which could very well have saved Berger’s life. Incredibly he escaped with only some broken ribs and mild burns to his hands. He missed only one race.

Ayrton Senna called him the next day to see how he was and Berger said to him, “This bloody wall there, one day somebody is going to die on it. If you have a technical failure there you’re dead.” A couple of weeks later he and Senna walked out and looked over the wall and could see the land falling down to a river and decided there was nothing they could do. It would be at that exact spot that Senna would die 5 years later.

Berger said later, “I got a big wake-up call from my accident at Imola and realised that I could do myself some serious damage. From Imola onwards I was a different driver for sure. Not slower or less competitive, just different.”

Well done to Toleman Fan, Karbry, Tony, AV2290, Emil, Cassius42, Clyde, Thomas888, Trent, Mike, SharkeySnaps, Tim, Taflach, Johnny, JC Case, Milestone11, The13thDuke and CTP!

This week’s question(s): Can you name the driver, team and race in the photo. In how many Formula 1 races did he participate and how many wins did he have?

Please provide your answers in the field below: