Johnny Herbert

Johnny Herbert

Nation:	United Kingdom
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last start:	2000 Malaysian Grand Prix
Constructors
1989  Benetton  • 1989  Tyrrell  • 1990–1994  Lotus  • 1994  Ligier  • 1994–1995  Benetton  • 1996–1998  Sauber  • 1999  Stewart  • 2000  Jaguar
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup fourth ( 1995 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 161 3 - -
World Cup points :	98
Podiums :	7th
Leadership laps :	44 over 226.9 km

John Paul "Johnny" Herbert (born June 25, 1964 in Romford ) is a British automobile racing driver . He started in Formula 1 between 1989 and 2000 and won three Grand Prix races. He also won the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1991 and the Sebring 12-hour race in 2002 .

Career

Herbert on his way to his first GP victory on July 14, 1995 at Silverstone in a Benetton B195

Herbert in the Audi R8 , Le Mans 2004

Herbert began his motorsport career in 1983 in Formula Ford , where he won the traditional Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in 1985 . In 1987 he won the British Formula 3 Championship , in 1988 he competed in Formula 3000 . There he broke his feet several times in a serious accident at Brands Hatch and was unable to finish the championship. For 1989 he had already signed a Formula 1 contract with Benetton before the accident.

Despite a difficult recovery, Herbert made his Formula 1 debut in Rio de Janeiro in 1989 and was waved in fourth. Due to his injuries, however, Herbert was unable to brake hard enough, which caused his performance to fall back on some racetracks. After the sixth race of the season at Benetton, he was replaced by the Italian Emanuele Pirro .

In 1990 Herbert had to return to Formula 3000 for a year because he had not yet fully recovered from the serious accident at Brands Hatch in 1988. In 1991 he replaced Julian Bailey at Lotus for some races , but has since been exchanged for the German Michael Bartels . However, when he was unable to qualify for a single race, Herbert returned to the team and was hired by the traditional English racing team from 1992 to 1994 alongside Mika Häkkinen as a regular driver. In the meantime Herbert also took part in the 24-hour race at Le Mans (1991 in a Mazda ) and was able to win it together with the Belgian Bertrand Gachot and the German Volker Weidler .

Herbert took part in 161 Formula 1 races, three of which he was able to win. In 1995 he finished fourth with Benetton-Renault after victories at Silverstone and Monza . Herbert drove his third victory in 1999 for the Stewart team in the chaos race at the Nürburgring . At the end of the 2000 season, the Briton temporarily ended his active Formula 1 career, but returned in 2001 as a test driver for Arrows .

During the 2005 season he was hired by the Jordan team as a team manager with a focus on public relations. Herbert kept this role even after the team was sold and the name was changed to Midland F1 and Spyker F1 . After the sale to the Indian investor Vijay Mallya (the team entered under the name Force India ), Herbert's contract was not renewed.

In 2007 he was involved in the establishment of a new racing series in the Middle East, the Speedcar Series , and also took part as a driver in the first season, the 2007/08 Speedcar Series season . In 2009 Herbert started in the British touring car series BTCC . In 2010 he started in the Italian Superstars series. In 2011 he took part in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring with a VW Golf24 .

statistics

• 1987: British Formula 3 Champion
• 1991: Victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race
• 1995: Fourth place in the Formula 1 World Championship

Grand Prix victories

1995 British Grand Prix ( Silverstone )  1995 Italian Grand Prix ( Monza )

1999 European Grand Prix ( Nürburg )

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1990	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 787	Bertrand Gachot	Volker Weidler		failure	Engine failure
1991	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda 787B	Bertrand Gachot	Volker Weidler		Overall victory
1992	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Mazda MXR-01	Bertrand Gachot	Volker Weidler	Maurizio Sandro Sala	Rank 4
2001	Champion Racing	Audi R8	Didier Theys	Ralf Kelleners		failure	Engine failure
2002	Audi Sport North America	Audi R8	Rinaldo Capello	Christian Pescatori		Rank 2
2003	Team Bentley	Bentley Speed ​​8	Mark Blundell	David Brabham		Rank 2
2004	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Audi R8	Jamie Davies	Guy Smith		Rank 2
2007	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Peter Kox	Tomáš Enge		Rank 9

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2002	Audi Sport North America	Audi R8	Rinaldo Capello	Christian Pescatori	Overall victory
2003	Team Bentley	Bentley Speed ​​8	David Brabham	Mark Blundell	Rank 3
2004	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx	Audi R8	Guy Smith	Jamie Davies	Rank 3

Web links

Commons : Johnny Herbert  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Johnny Herbert at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 39th ADAC Zurich 24h Race June 23-26, 2011. Preliminary list of participants. Status: May 24, 2011. ( Memento from September 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive )