Berger: I've given up being the pit-lane joker.
Former Grand Prix driver and now BMW Motorsport Director Gerhard Berger has insisted he is no longer the 'pit-lane joker'.
The Austrian told British tabloid newspaper The Sun: "People may find it hard to believe but I really have given up being the pit-lane joker. It was great fun while it lasted but I am getting older and my life and priorities have changed. I am now more sensible. It wasn't something I suddenly decided to do, it just happened when I took on this job."
Former Grand Prix driver and now BMW Motorsport Director Gerhard Berger has insisted he is no longer the 'pit-lane joker'.
The Austrian told British tabloid newspaper The Sun: "People may find it hard to believe but I really have given up being the pit-lane joker. It was great fun while it lasted but I am getting older and my life and priorities have changed. I am now more sensible. It wasn't something I suddenly decided to do, it just happened when I took on this job."
He added: "From early in my driving career I became saddled with this image of someone always having fun nights with endless girls and spending all his free time on the beach. It wasn't quite like that at all but, as I had got the image, I took the role and played along with it."
He concluded: "The truth is, after races I would go home and concentrate on running a successful trucking business and I would do all my own F1 negotiating. I never had a manager running my career. But I never made that side of my life public because it would have ruined my reputation."
Berger also admitted that he wasn't particularly well-liked when he first joined BMW. He said: "I certainly wasn't popular when I started because this is a ruthless business and I had to get rid of some of the dead wood. But we won Le Mans in 1999 and then we came into Formula One and scored a podium finish in our first race together with Williams. Had things not gone right it would have been easy for my reputation to have been damaged for ever but the risk was slight because Williams are a formidable force and know how to win."
He continued that he has great respect for Ralf Schumacher and Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya. He said: "It's only in the past two years I have appreciated Ralf's potential. Now he has broken through Michael's shadow he will just get better and better. Juan (Pablo Montoya) is not ready to play all the keys on the piano just yet but he does have the talent to be one of the top drivers. People have been asking too much of him too quickly."
