Gerhard Berger Accidentally Terrified Jean Todt During Late-Night Hotel Blunder

Former F1 team boss Otmar Szafnauer has shared a remarkable story involving two of Ferrari’s most celebrated figures from the sport’s history.
Jean Todt served as Ferrari’s general manager between 1994 and 2007, before later taking on the roles of CEO and special advisor at the Scuderia.
Todt played a key role in convincing Michael Schumacher to join Ferrari, overseeing a dynasty that produced five consecutive world championships between 2000 and 2004.
His first major success as general manager came in 1994, when Gerhard Berger claimed Ferrari’s first grand prix victory in four years at that season’s German Grand Prix.
Berger never won a drivers’ championship, but he secured 13 podiums for Ferrari across two spells with the team, racing for the Scuderia between 1987-1989 and again between 1993-1995.
Szafnauer, a former F1 team boss himself, recently appeared on the High Performance podcast where he recounted the bizarre incident involving both men.
The story centres on Berger becoming locked out of his hotel room during a previous Italian Grand Prix at Monza, leading to a chaotic late-night attempt to break back inside.
“I think it was Monza, so, I wasn’t there,” Szafnauer said on the podcast. “Somebody told me the story. Gerhard Berger’s driver that kind of looked after him is leaving where Gerhard was staying. Small hotel. He was on I don’t know the second floor. Was locked out. Couldn’t get in. So Gerhard calls him, says, ‘Come back. I need you to help me get into my room.'”
Szafnauer continued: “And it’s 1:32 in the morning, doors are locked, can’t get a hold of the owners. And you know, this is at a time where the internet didn’t exist, but cell phones were prevalent. So my friend goes back and he says, ‘It’s my room up there.’ So they crawl up on the balcony. He and Gerhard both get up on the balcony outside this room get a crowbar from the van, and they’re trying to get the window open. Well, as they’re trying to get the window open, the window smashes and Gerhard looks, he said, ‘It’s not my room.'”
The two men had climbed onto the wrong balcony entirely, smashing the window of a room that turned out to belong to Jean Todt himself.
F1 legend Rob Smedley reacted to the revelation by saying: “That’s the one person whose room you do not want it to be.”
Szafnauer added that Todt, believing an intruder was breaking in after the window smashed, sought refuge inside the room’s bathroom and locked himself in.
Podcast host Jake Humphrey asked whether Todt had ever been aware of what actually happened, to which Szafnauer replied: “He’s gonna learn now.”
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