Yahoo Autos Ferrari Testarossa Stolen From F1 Driver Gerhard Berger Recovered After 28 Years
While many stolen cars are ultimately recovered and returned to their owners, few are on the lam for as long as this one. The Metropolitan Police in London on Monday announced the seizure of the Ferrari F512 M Testarossa that was stolen from one of the Scuderia’s then Formula 1 drivers, Gerhard Berger, in Italy in 1995. It seems to have been traveling the world ever since.
Invariably abbreviated to "The Met," London's police department says it received a report from Ferrari in January after the supercar maker “carried out checks on a car being bought by a U.S. buyer via a U.K. broker, which revealed it was a stolen vehicle." Further investigation by the Met’s Organized Vehicle Crime Unit revealed that the F512 M had been shipped to Japan soon after being stolen, and was then exported to the U.K. late last year. The Met seized the car to stop it from being sold on, and is now presumably trying to work out the legal intricacies of its ownership.
The F512 M in question seems to have plenty of adventures along the way. It is one of the last batch of 500 of the long-lived flat-12 powered sportscars that were built between 1994 and 1996 with conventional headlamps in place of the earlier Testarossa’s much cooler pop-up units. The Met’s images reveal that this one has also been given the anachronistic addition of what appear to be ugly parking sensors front and rear and also a non-standard steering wheel and gear shifter. It also has what appear to be aftermarket Recaro Speed bucket seats in a garish shade of red. An earlier Berger-owned 1989 Testarossa was auctioned in 2022, revealing a much more tasteful and seemingly standard interior. On that basis we reckon the 512 M’s alternations all came after it was taken from him.
The theft itself came at the culmination of a thrilling weekend for both Ferrari and its drivers at the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix. Berger qualified his Ferrari 412 T2 - the last V12-powered Formula 1 car - just 0.008 seconds behind pole-sitter Michael Schumacher’s Benetton. The race was in wet conditions and Berger took the lead after Schumacher crashed out, but then dropped down the order after stalling in the pits. The Austrian ultimately finished in third place, behind teammate Jean Alesi and winner Damon Hill, driving the Adrian Newey-designed Williams FW17.
But action off the track was even more exciting. Berger’s F512 M was stolen from the hotel he was staying at in Imola, a contemporary report from grandprix.com says that he attempted to stop the thieves by standing in front of the car, and then gave chase in a friend’s Volkswagen Golf. At around the same time, Jean Alesi’s grey Ferrari 355 was stolen from the parking garage at his hotel. That car remains missing.
The Met says the recovered car is worth "close to £350,000," or $445,000 at current exchange rates. It almost certainly isn’t, even with the Formula 1 connection, given that Berger’s earlier car sold for the equivalent of $155,000 including auction fees two years ago. But this Testarossa will still attract interest if and when it reaches market. The Met also says that inquiries remain ongoing and that no arrests have been made.
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