Ex-F1 driver’s stolen $680k Ferrari found after 29 years: F1 Pit Talk

There are few Ferrari models as evocative as the Testarossa.

Gerhard Berger might find the model triggering, however, having had his stolen from him 29 years ago while on duty as a Scuderia Ferrari driver in Imola.

With organised crime thought to be behind audacious theft, few thought the car would ever be seen again — until just this week, almost 29 years later, though Berger is still several steps away from getting back behind the wheel.

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Meanwhile, F1 has put the prospect of rotating classic races back on the agenda as a way to make more space on the Formula 1 schedule for new venues, and Valtteri Bottas’s Bahrain disaster has brought back memories of F1’s slowest ever pit stop.

STOLEN FERRARI RECOVERED AFTER 29 YEARS

London police have recovered a red Ferrari Testarossa stolen from former Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger during the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix.

London’s Metropolitan Police said the F512 M variant of the famous flat-12 had been tracked down four days after Ferrari identified it as being sold through a British broker to a buyer in the United States.

Berger reported the car as stolen after catching thieves in the act at his hotel in Imola almost 29 years ago. The 10-time grand prix winner gave chase in a Volkswagen Golf but was outgunned by the crooks in his own much faster car.

Inquiries in the aftermath of the robbery were unsuccessful.

But a breakthrough in the case came in January, when Ferrari conducted checks on a sale made late last year and discovered it to be the missing Testarossa.

Authorities in London have since uncovered that the car was shipped to Japan shortly after being stolen before being taken to the UK in 2023.

No arrests have yet been made.

The UK Telegraph has reported Scotland Yard has contacted Berger about the recovery of his car, though it’s unclear when or if he will be able to get his hands back on it given he likely will have had insurance paid out on the theft, technically rendering it the property of his insurance company.

Reuters reports the F512 M is worth approximately £350,000 (A$683,000).

Berger’s Ferrari teammate, Jean Alesi, also had his silver Ferrari F355 stolen that weekend from his hotel. It has yet to be recovered.

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CIRCUIT ROTATION ON THE CARDS TO AID CALENDAR EXPANSION

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has hinted that circuit rotation could return to the calendar by 2026 as the sport seeks to add new destinations to the schedule.

Formula 1 is embarking on the longest season in its history in 2024, with 24 races scheduled in 21 different countries.

But the sport is continuing to seek venues for new races. Earlier this year F1 announced that a street circuit in Madrid would join the calendar from 2026, and there are long-running rumours of prospective events in South Korea and South Africa as well as a potential fourth destination in the United States.

The Madrid event is particularly interesting as 2026 is contracted to be the final year of Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, making it a potential additional race rather than a straight replacement.

“I think in 26, you’re going to see something interesting,” Domenicali said, per Autosport, in an apparent reference to rotating venues on alternative seasons. “We are discussing with other promoters in Europe to do something that will be announced soon.”

F1 has rotated races before, most recently with the German Grand Prix alternating between the Hockenheimring and Nürburgring between 2008 and 2014.

Future rotations are tipped to encompass more than just one nation, however, with the Belgian Grand Prix expected to be an early candidate to rotate its place on the calendar with the Dutch Grand Prix given their geographical proximity.

Domenicali added that he didn’t foresee the calendar expanding beyond 24 races a season.

“I just want to confirm the fact that we believe 24 races is the right number,” he said. “I think that we are going to play in the right way, in the way I was mentioning just briefly before, on the fact that we have certain opportunities that we want to bring to the market in the next couple of years, starting from 2026 onwards.”

BOTTAS RUES ‘SECOND SLOWEST’ 52-SECOND PIT STOP

Valtteri Bottas has lamented his almost minute-long pit stop as the second worst of his career after it effectively ended his race at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Bottas had been running 15th when he came in for his second and final pit stop of the night, but a suspected cross-threaded wheel nut kept him stationary for fully 52.4 seconds as his mechanics worked on removing his front-left wheel.

He dropped to second last when he eventually returned to the track ahead of only Logan Sargeant, who had been slowed by an electronics issue requiring a steering wheel change.

“It was a front-left wheel nut issue, it seems like something got stuck or cross-threaded,” Bottas said, per RacingNews365. “We will investigate, and now the main thing is to understand, because it shouldn’t happen.

“It was my second-worst pit stop in history, so hopefully it’s not the same spec wheel nut.”

Bottas’s slowest pit stop was markedly longer, clocking in at a race-ending 43 hours at the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix while racing for Mercedes.

In that instance Bottas’s front-right wheel had its nut machined smooth by an improperly positioned gun, making it impossible to remove.

It took until the following Tuesday after the race, almost two days later, for mechanics to free the wheel from the car with special equipment.