Former F1 driver’s stolen Ferrari found after 28 years

A rare Ferrari stolen from one of the famous marque’s Formula One drivers in 1995 has finally been recovered, putting an end to a near 30-year mystery.

The London Metropolitan Police’s Organised Vehicle Crime Unit recovered this Ferrari F512 M – one of 501 final versions of the Testarossa – after a four-day investigation.

On the weekend of the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix – held at Imola in Italy’s north-east – two Ferraris were stolen. This red F512 M, belonging to Ferrari racing driver Gerhard Berger was one of them, as well as a grey F355 which was driven at the time by his teammate Jean Alesi.

Despite the theft, the drivers went on to finish the Formula One race in second and third place respectively, coming a year on from the tragic deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Mr Berger’s long-time friend Ayrton Senna at the same circuit.

According to the London Met, the F512 M was shipped to Japan shortly after it was stolen from Italy, eventually ending up in the US.

It was there that the mystery began to unravel, after Ferrari was commissioned to check over the car in the US on behalf of a UK broker in 2023, subsequently contacting the Met in January 2024 having established it was the stolen vehicle which belonged to Mr Berger.

The Met has valued the Ferrari F512 M at approximately £350,000 (A$683,000), being one of the last production vehicles to be powered by a flat-12 engine.

The 4.9-litre unit produces up to 324kW of power and 500Nm of torque, sent to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transmission.

No arrests have been made regarding the theft of the Ferrari F512 M. The grey F355 stolen from Jean Alesi is yet to be recovered.

MORE: Everything Ferrari