Video: Listen to Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari 412T2 F1 car flying round Mugello

26th February 2020

Seán Ward

Imagine waking up, driving to Mugello and climbing aboard the 1995 Ferrari 412T2 F1 car as raced by Gerhard Berger. Better still, imagine that was your job, not just some-one off, once-in-a-lifetime experience. This is the mad, wonderful world of Marc Gené.

Gené has it pretty good. He raced in Formula 1 with Minardi and Williams, won at Le Mans with Peugeot in 2009 and came third with Audi in 2013. He was Ferrari’s official F1 test driver for seven years, too, and nowadays he drives old Ferrari F1 cars for rich owners who want to see their cars pushed as part of Ferrari’s Corse Cliente programme. Imagine that: being paid to drive old Ferrari Formula 1 cars at sun-kissed tracks all over the world, without the pressure of competition. What a life.

The car you see here is the very car that took Berger to six third-place finishes, securing him sixth place in the drivers’ championship, one place behind team-mate Jean Alesi, who scored his only career win at the wheel of a 412T2. And as you’ll hear oh so clearly, it has a 3.0-litre, 75-degree V12 with around 700bhp. Goodness, it sounds good.

What’s more, the 412T2 was the first Ferrari Formula 1 car to be driven by Michael Schumacher, and it was the first Ferrari to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard way back in 1995.

If only there were more naturally aspirated V12s around.

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