Better late than never. Metropolitan Police found the Ferrari that was stolen from Formula 1 racing driver Gerhard Berger in 1995 while he was racing in San Marino with the help of authorities and dealerships from all over the world.
It is a Ferrari Testarossa F512M in Rosso Corsa that thieves robbed the Austrian racer of more than 28 years ago. At the time of the theft, Gerhard Berger was busy racing in the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, in Italy. The Austrian competed in Formula 1 for 14 seasons. He finished third overall two times, in 1988 and 1994, both times driving for Ferrari. But that experience did not help him much.
Gerhard Berger reportedly came across the thieves and tried to chase after them in a friend's Volkswagen Golf, but they did not stand a chance during the street chase.
Rolled out toward the end of the Testarossa production, the F512 was powered by a 4.9-liter Tipo F113 mid-mounted flat-12 engine, generating 434 horsepower (441 metric horsepower) and 370 pound-feet (500 Newton meters) of torque, which made the car accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 kph) in 4.7 seconds and did the quarter mile in 12.7 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 196 mph (315 kph).
The Ferrari was not the only car stolen at the time, but it was the only car found. The other one, a silver-grey Ferrari F355 belonging to another F1 driver, Jean Alesi, still hasn't been traced 28 years after the theft.
Photo: Metropolitan Police
Police recovered the car and put the pieces of the puzzle back together to understand the route that it took throughout all these years. The Ferrari Testarossa was reportedly shipped to Japan soon after it was stolen. In late 2023, it was brought back to the United Kingdom.
The Organized Vehicle Crime Unit of the Metropolitan Police caught sight of it in January 2024 after the officers received a report on it from the Italian carmaker, which was aware of the theft. The division recovered a total of 418 cars, having a combined value of 31 million pounds ($3.9 million).
Ferrari carried out checks on a car that was bought by someone in the United States via a broker from the UK last year. The investigation revealed that it was a stolen car.
Police Constable Mike Pilbeam was the one who led the investigation. Pilbeam says that he and his team managed to track down the Ferrari stolen 28 years ago in just four days.
To be able to do that, they contacted authorities from around the world, with the National Crime Agency, Ferrari, and several international car dealerships becoming part of the network that helped the Metropolitan Police. After they understood the background of the Testarossa, they stopped it from leaving the country to reach its new owner in the US, as reported by Sky News.
No arrests have been made yet, but the investigation continues. Police are hoping that the second sports car stolen on the same day, Jean Alesi’s Ferrari will be found soon as well, but they have not received any information on it yet.
However, the Ferrari F512M that they found is one exclusive sports car. Ferrari only built around 500 of them between 1994 and 1996. MET claims the value of the Ferrari F512 M that they found is approximately 350,000 pounds, which translates to $443,850.
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