Stefan Scherz

Scherz in parc fermé prior to podium ceremonies at the British Grand Prix

Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria

**Stefan Karl Scherz** is an Austrian racing driver currently driving for Sauber in Formula One. He is the brother of Rally co-driver Johannes Scherz and also the son of Austrian Businessman Tobias Scherz, a major Orange telecommunications shareholder during the early 2000s who has helped fund large parts of his career.

Scherz was heavily injured in the 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix when he collided with Tatsuno Takamori. He would return to racing for the start of the 2009 season, calling his return the "*Rescherzgence*."

## **Racing Career**

### **Early Racing Career**

#### **Benelux Formula Ford Championship (1992)**

Stefan would start his car racing career in the Benelux Formula Ford Championship following a successful campaign in the European karting scene.

His season was fairly successful, scoring several points finishes and eventually finishing 6th in the championship. He would however go winless and only take a single podium, Other than this his exact results in this championship are unknown as they have been lost to time.

#### **German Formula Three (1993 - 1994)**

Following his successful debut in the Benelux championship, Stefan progressed into German Formula Three.

Stefan's first season in German Formula Three was inconsistent at best, struggling in the new racing environment but despite that, he would show brief glimpses of pace throughout the season by taking two pole positions.

His second season in the championship would be much more successful. He took four wins amongst eight podiums throughout the 19 races across the 10 rounds (The first race at the Zolder round was cancelled due to snow). Following his consistent results he was able to secure 2nd in the championship.

#### **International F3000 (1995)**

In 1995 it was announced that Stefan had signed for the Dams team.

His season was relatively uneventful. He would take a single on track win at the Spa-Francorchamps round in Belgium despite only finishing 2nd on track after teamate Mathew Jaworski was given a penalty for speeding in the pitlane. With these results and Stefan's consistency throughout the season he would be able to secure a lucky championship victory following the all conquering Supernova Racing Team's disqualification from the championship after running what was later found to be an illegal car.

The final championship standings were only confirmed after Supernova Racing Team's appeal was rejected by the world motorsport council following the FIA's inquiry. After this decision it was finally confirmed Stefan would sign with the Minardi F1 team for the 1996 season.

### **Formula One Career**

#### **Ford (1997 - 1998)**

##### **1997**

###### **Opening rounds**

Australian Grand Prix

Following the loss of his Minardi seat at the end of 1996 Stefan would turn to the newly created Ford team. Going into pre-season, hopes were high, with the team using an in-house Ford V8 engine under the stable leadership of Günther Steiner.

Despite this, the first race of the season would be nothing but tragedy for Stefan and the rest of the Ford team collectively. He would be unable to set a representative qualifying time and would start from 21st. However, this would matter little as his race wouldn't last past the second corner after he would be caught in a major incident. Stefan had almost made it through the wreckage before being hit by the rolling car of his teamate Jasper Saetern.

Infuriated with Saetern for not holding his brakes, Scherz ran over to berate the Norwegian for the damage done to his car with what appeared to be a rookie mistake. It was only once he came closer that Stefan would realise the severity of the injuries his teammate had suffered. Jasper was unconsciousness and had a lack of colour in his face, which would leave the other drivers involved in the incident crowded around with concerned faces. These concerns would be exacerbated by the long response time from the marshals. Stefan would later reflect on the experience in a BBC interview with Leigh Edwardson:

> "At first I was angry as I believe most would be. Holding the brakes is the minimum expected for drivers at this level, but as I came closer and I knelt by the car I saw no response so from there I opened his visor to see his reaction. Following what I saw there I was rather sure the injuries would be leaning on the side of fatal."
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- Stefan Scherz (Speaking at Brazil 1997)

Jasper would later pass away at 7:29pm local time after his life support was turned off because of his unrecoverable injuries. Scherz would accompany a large portion of the Ford Formula One team at Jasper's funeral in Bergen, Norway.

Brazilian Grand Prix

Scherz would struggle at the Interlagos track, claiming a lack of downforce was holding him back throughout the circuit. He was able to climb through the rankings to finish 14th by race, beating his former Minardi teammate Ralf Goldbach to the line by just three-thousandths of a second in one of the closest finishes in Formula One history.

###### **Mid-Season**

Stefan's season would take a turn for the worse for round three, The team would miss the San Marino round at Imola after the Ford V8 engines were left stranded in Michigan after major transport delays. Because of this the team would be unable to run either drivers car and withdrew from the event on the Saturday morning when it became clear that the engines weren't going to arrive in time.

Estoril wouldn't be much better for Scherz. In qualifying he would be beat by a teammate for the only time in 1997 and his issues would continue as the weekend progressed after he lost concentration into turn eight during the early stages of the race race and clattered his FD-01 into the barriers, an incident he would escape from uninjured.

Scherz would take his second finish of the season in round five at the British Grand Prix. He finished 11th despite struggling to find pace after major reliability issues during practice which had forced the Ford team to swap the engine from the chassis twice. These issues would lead to Stefan only completing six laps of the Silverstone track before the race started. Stefan's race engineer, Katharina Gärtner, described the circumstances after the race: "Him finishing was the most unlikely event of the weekend but he somehow made it happen anyway."

German Grand Prix

The German Grand Prix would be a turning point for Stefan and the team, He would undergo a respectable qualifying session having him start 16th on the grid for Sunday. The Austrian would spend most of the race just outside the points fighting against Ligier's Conor Byrne, Sauber's Andres Arrigondiaga and in the early stages of the race Minardi's Stine Olander. Eventually Stefan would find himself running in 11th position by the final lap before the rookie Bartholemew Worchestershire-Smythe would crash out from 7th in the final corner of the challenging Hockenheim circuit, cruelly denying him a points finish on his debut race in the sport. However, Smythe's tragedy would quickly become Ford's triumph as the incident would elevate Scherz to 10th place by the finish line, scoring Ford Grand Prix's first points in Formula One.

###### **Final Races of 1997**

The Italian Grand prix wouldn't be quite as productive for Scherz. He would miss the first day of practice on Friday after he contracted viral gastroenteritis. It is unknown how Scherz became sick but it is known that it affected him greatly throughout the race weekend. Despite its presence he was able to compose himself enough to start 12th after qualifying and eventually finish the race in 11th place just outside the points.

The Austrian Grand Prix would be another high point for Stefan and the team. Despite taking a ten second time penalty for an illegal pit entry he would finish in 10th place. He claimed post-race that a two-stop strategy would have pushed him up to 8th despite the FD-01's design generally performing better with longer stint-based strategies.

One last race in Japan did initially appear to be great opportunity for the Ford team after Scherz qualified 9th (a career best) with Misako close behind in 11th. Hopes were high for a potential first double points finish for the team. Despite Saturday's good fortune they would hit heartbreak in only the first two corners as both cars would collide twice; First on the turn one exit after Misako had oversteer, causing her FD-01's front end to rotate into Stefan's left sidepod. The second incidnet would come mere meters later into the beginning of the 'esses' as Scherz would abruptly close the door on Misako, compounding the teams misery. Despite damage to both cars (especially Stefan's) neither would retire.

Scherz would continue onwards, despite damage to both the rear wing and left sidepod of his car costing him significant lap time. The rear of the car would eventually collapse on lap 14 at *130R* after the damage from the first lap and a later collision with Jenrick Armitage-Barnes IV became too much. It was an incident that Stefan barely recovered from. The Austrian would run last until the finish line, almost catching the Sauber of Jan Toom by the end of the race.

The end of the race would signal the beginning of the controversy surrounding the start for both Ford drivers, Many claimed the greed of both drivers led to the collisions. Scherz would later say in an interview surrounding the topic:

> "Well the first collision was clearly completely Heather's fault this is clear. Crashing every other race of the season and costing the team so much money every week was bad enough but doing it into a teammate is even worse than this. From there my car was mostly ruined and was closer to undriveable as the race went on. It got better after the repairs but that cost large amount of time with the rear wing change, At that point it may have been better to retire the car" - Stefan Scherz
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The controversy would continue in Japan as they were both, alongside others, involved in a wild post-race party:

> "Misako, along with Ferrari driver Morais and Ford teammate Scherz, went on the rampage throwing a freezer and television screen out of a window as the celebrations ran well into the night. But any thoughts of the FIA punishing the drivers for their antics were ruled out when a spokesperson said: "Definitely not." Armitage-Barnes, Olander, Delacroix and Parker were also seen in the group"
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Scherz's exact level of involvement has remained unknown. However, the Austrian has since claimed that he "did little of any relevance" that night in Japan.

#### **Arrows (1999-2001)**

##### **2000**

Going into the 2000 season it was originally believed that Stefan would not be racing for arrows, His seat had been linked with several other drivers after his teammate from the year prior, Ralf Goldbach, had beat him by 12 points.

However, Stefan's fortune would change during his contract negotiations after his father, Tobias Scherz, became the third largest shareholder in Orange telecommunications which subsequently made an undisclosed deal with the arrows team on the contingency that Scherz would continue driving for the team in 2000.

###### **Opening Rounds**

Australian Grand Prix

Despite the unpopular method to procure finances from the team, hopes were still high going into the first round in Australia. The team overall believed their package for this year would be far more consistently competitive than in years past.

The hopes however, would not materialise in the first round after both cars would struggle in the early practice seasons. Nevertheless, Scherz would be able take a surprise 13th in qualifying, a result made all the more impressive after his distinguished German teammate failed to set a lap within the 107% time.

The Austrian's qualifying performance would matter little on race start as Stefan would get caught up in an unavoidable lap one incident. Lucky for him the damage to his A21 would be minimal. Stefan's race would progress well from there after an early pass on Thom Saetern and a battle with McLaren's Jenrick Armitage-Barnes IV which the Englishman would describe as "Positively Spiffing," not that Stefan knew what that meant. With five laps left to run, Stefan had managed to close the gap to Ligier's Charles Rey down to just a second. It would be difficult to pass the Monegasque driver as had been proven by the few overtakes at the track that day.

Rey would defend valiantly but it wouldn't be enough to keep Stefan behind after the Austrian completed an inspired move on the inside of the turn nine chicane. He would hang on to the outside on the exit and stay there until turn 15 to complete a fantastic overtake.

Stefan would stay there in P10 to secure a shock season-opening points finish. He would later be promoted to P9 after Timo Pakkinen's McLaren would be disqualified for a technical infringement after an extended FIA investigation into the Finn's car following protests by the Benetton and Ferrari teams after the race result.

Brazilian Grand Prix

The next race weekend in Brazil looked as if it would be a big struggle for the team, The car didn't look to do well at high downforce tracks despite Stefan's thrilling performance in Albert Park. Going into the event, the team tried to temper expectations internally and externally.

Scherz's weekend would start poorly after a big crash in the first practice session of the weekend. From then onwards he would be participating in the Arrows team's T-car, only once he had been cleared by the medical centre that night. He claimed on Saturday morning before qualifying that he didn't know how badly the lack of practice would effect him, but he expected it to be substantial. He did later claim however that he had caught up quickly in the remaining practice sessions and through 'highly constructive' discussions with his friend and teammate Ralf.

Qualifying would be a satisfactory performance with Stefan starting ahead of his teammate Goldbach after both drivers set times fast enough to place them on the eighth row.

Stefan had another unfortunate race start, clouting the barrier after going three-wide at turn four, which became four-wide on the exit. Unfortunately for the team Stefan collided with Goldbach as he tried to take the inside line. Ralf would just about stay on track after this but would be collected yards later by Ligier's Jakab Gipsz in a rather more serious collision in which both cars would retire. Despite the fate of his teammate, Stefan would be able to continue with only minor sidepod and front wing endplate damage.

Stefan from there would begin his recovery drive from the back of the grid for the second time in two races. He would progress through the field well after making an efficient pass on Michael Crawford into turn four. Later he was being closely followed by Sauber's Andres Arrigondiaga into turn nine as the Argentine driver made an optimistic move into the Pinheirinho corner. Arrigondiaga made contact with Scherz, spinning both cars around. Both drivers would later butt heads over the incident but Andres was later penalised by the stewards for the collision.

Near the end of his final stint Scherz was in 11th position and gaining on the battling Byrne and Pakkinen before the Finn would spin into the penultimate corner after his MP4/15 would seize up and lock into reverse. This incident would push Scherz up into the points. He would quickly on Byrne but it wouldn't be enough and he would finish less than five seconds behind the Jaguar driver in P10, taking a consecutive points finish for the first time in his career.

United States Grand Prix

Stefan would approach Round Four in the US with confidence, hoping to continue his points-scoring streak which had started back at the final round in Japan last year. Teams were unsure of how the balance of power would play out at the Indianapolis Road Course as it was the first year the track had been run. The arrows team were planning to capitalise on the confusion and score good points for the Constructors' Championship.

Expectations continued to be high after Stefan topped the first practice session with teammate Goldbach not far behind with the third fastest time. The pair were split by Jaguar's Stine Olander, with the cars of both teams thriving due to the characteristics of the corners at Indianapolis.

The Arrows cars would both start the race on the 5th row after a respectable qualifying. Following a decent start Scherz would spend a large portion of the race battling against Ferrari's Rodrigo Morais and teammate Ralf Goldbach. He would eventually beat out both and passed the prior using a perfectly executed overcut to get past the Portuguese driver.

After Goldbach passed Morais later on in the second stint the Arrows team were overjoyed to see their cars running in 7th and 8th ahead of both Ferrari's. As Stefan rounded the final corner of the final lap, some commentators noted he was driving at a slower speed than usual. They assumed that Scherz was coasting to the line due it being the final lap but after the cameras finally cut back there were stunned reactions as Scherz was seen stopped next to the pitlane dividing wall less than 50 meters from the finish line.

It was later revealed that through a miscommunication that Scherz's car had been underfuelled, with the purpose to be able to pass Morias with an overcut to then save fuel later in the stint. Stefan was instead informed by his race engineer, Katharina Gärtner, that he had been overfuelled to be able to overtake the Ferrari driver during the second stint and that passing him at the stop was an unexpected success. Exactly where the communication broke down and who was at fault for the incident was not officially stated but this did not stop rumours surrounding who was to blame.

Once his car came to a stop Stefan threw his steering wheel from his car, an action which he was later fined by the FIA for. He stormed out of the venue, refusing to even stop by the arrows garage to find out how this had happened. On the morning of Friday's press day for the next race at Monaco he would discuss the incident for a segment in the 'Racing Arrows' TV show, which was charting the highs and lows of the Arrows team that season. Stefan would state the following:

> "I really didn't even consider that an issue could come up at that stage. I was just pleased to be finishing in seventh as in my mind it was inevitable. It would have been the best result of my career for me so I wasn't very happy to miss out on it you see?
> Its good to see we can fight the Ferrari's and win but mistakes like this one make it harder to see successes like that and benefit from them. This was my feeling after this race but at the time I was emotional and just didn't want to be there any longer, hence why I left." - Stefan Scherz speaking with the 'Racing Arrows' TV program
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Despite not finishing, he was still classified as 10th under the 90% rule as both Saetern and Oman were a lap down, allowing Stefan to continue his points streak.

Monaco Grand Prix

The Monaco Grand Prix would be cancelled due to storm Ronald creating undriveable conditions for the race on Sunday after three weeks worth of rain fell on that day alone. Stefan hadn't performed well earlier in the weekend either despite normally thriving in the wet conditions he could only set the 14th fastest time during Saturdays qualifying session. He would later claim that the arrows naturally struggled on tighter and more downforce reliant tracks like Monte Carlo.

#### **McLaren Reserve and Fulltime (2002-20--)**

##### **2004**

###### **Opening Rounds**

Australia Grand Prix

Bahrain Grand Prix

Austrian Grand Prix

German Grand Prix

###### **Mid-Season**

United States Grand Prix

British Grand Prix

Belgian Grand Prix

Stefan's struggles would reach its zenith in September at the Belgian Grand Prix. After once again arriving as the sole McLaren driver he would immediately shatter his clutch within his first laps of FP1, leaving him out for the rest of the session. In FP2 he would be slightly more successful, completing 10 laps before ending his day early with power steering issues. The Austrian would sit out the third practice session after the mechanics spotted concerning indentations on the dampers and torsion bars, especially on the front right which needed to be rebuilt.

Qualifying was an equally fraught affair as well. Stefan would only be able to achieve the 8th best time, which was to be expected with the MP4/19's struggles throughout the season. The session was concluded with a scare after Scherz had a glancing blow with the armco barrier on the exit of *Van Damme* but he would escape with only easily repairable damage to the front wing.

On the morning of the race the concerns surrounding Scherz's car subsided and the team was hopeful of a good result despite the struggles faced in the earlier sessions. It was believed that with a good start a high finishing position would be possible. Scherz's start did seem indicate that these hopes were well founded. Stefan was up to fifth place going into the final sector made a mistake under braking and had subsequent contact with Honda's Tatsuno Takamori. With this, the Austrian was out of the points. Stefan reported over the radio that the car's handling had been changed by the crash. The exact extent of the damage was difficult for the team to assess from the pit wall. Despite this he was told to stay out as the collision was minimal and any potential damage was believed to be minor at worst.

Scherz's pace in the following laps was notably off the pace and was characterised by consistent mistakes. Onboard cameras from the McLaren clearly showed Stefan struggling to turn the wheel back and forth through *Les Combes,* leading to concerns surrounding the suspension. His problems would eventually come to a dramatic summit when his front left suspension unit would fail at over 200mph (320kph) through *Blanchimont*.

While some speed was scrubbed off between the suspension failure and the collision with the barrier it is still believed that the car was travelling at over 180mph (290kph) upon contact. After the crash, Stefan said nothing over the radio, either due to it no longer working or a lack of consciousness. He was immediately airlifted to Liège hospital after stewards pulled the Austrian out of the car.

###### **Final Rounds**

Italian Grand Prix

Malaysian Grand Prix

Japanese Grand Prix

Brazilian Grand Prix

## Racing Record

**Complete German Formula Three Championship Results**

**Complete International Formula 3000 Championship Results**

\*Final championship position displayed is following the disqualification of the Super Nova Racing Team. Before the disqualification Scherz was only 3rd in the drivers standings.

**Complete Formula One Championship Results**