Exclusive interview by Thomas Gmür

The following interview is a Johnny Herbert Website exclusive. Thomas Gmür of Pitlane talks to Johnny at a Sauber karting event in September 1998:

TG: Johnny, are you prepared for a difficult season next year?

JH: Yeah, but at Stewart-Ford, with Ford being the engine manufacturer I think it's an important thing to have. With Sauber it is difficult because the engine is Ferrari and it's not easy for them, so with Stewart that will be much much easier. They have to improve the chassis, they know that. We will work together in the winter time as it is never easy to make the car competitive during the year. It's gonna be new for me, but at the end of the day, the job is exactly the same as it was in any other team. We'll work together with Rubens Barrichello and it should be good, and I think with Ford as well it will be two good years for me.

TG: Your relationship with Ford goes back to your debut in 1989. Are you happy to be back or is it just a partner like any other?

JH: It is a partner, but lots of them are friends as well. I always got on well with the Ford people. Some of the people I knew when I was at Lotus, like Jacques Nasser, who is actually now President of Ford Worldwide, have gone up the ladder and it gets a lot better now. And the nice thing about the Ford people is that they are very very friendly and they understand what they need to do now because they now have Cosworth as their own. Before that it was owned by Cosworth, then Vickers, the people who owned Rolls-Royce, then Audi and now it is Ford basically. For their racing programme it is very important to have that.

TG: The chassis, as you said, has to be improved. What are the plans at Stewart to achieve that?

JH: There are a lot of things changing within the structure to make it better for the chassis. But the other important factor is, they do have the Ford connection. There are a lot of people in the Ford Motor Company that do road types and developments of suspension systems. So they have extra help to make it better. So I think it will be very good.

TG: Have you got some guarantees that Ford will get involved in a bigger way?

JH: No, not really. The guarantee is that they bought Cosworth. For me that is the biggest guarantee.

TG: After three years at Sauber, what will you take with you?

JH: There is nothing I take which I could use anywhere else. There are things that worked there in a different way. But in my experience I had there over the years there are no things where you can say that's good because they did this or they did that. The only thing is to work together with [Stewart and Ford] and understand what different things we can do to work out and make a better "product". As far as Sauber is concerned, I've enjoyed the three years. It was good coming here, when I first came with Heinz-Harald and then it was a bit more difficult for me because it was only me last year. I looked forward to a fight with Jean this year and everything was going fine up until we had problems at Silverstone and Austria. That made it easier for me to make a decision to go somewhere else.

TG: In my eyes it was your fault in Silverstone and Jean had the right to be upset because of the different strategies.

JH: The whole thing is about strategies. My strategy was one stop, his was two stops. It was no gaining position. We were fighting for fifth and sixth. He wasn't as quick as Irvine, I wasn't as quick as Irvine. So, as for it being a benefit for the team, it didn't make any difference. It would have been either fifth or sixth or sixth and fifth, makes no difference.

TG: Good to hear your side of the story!

JH: I knew he had less fuel and I had older tyres, so he was gonna catch me. I don't have a problem with that but there was nothing agreed beforehand. If it was agreed beforehand I wouldn't have been happy, but to hear it on the radio is worse. I had to think about what they talking about and I shouldn't have to think about what are they trying to tell me when I'm driving - I should be trying to concentrate on the race. But I spun off the track because of that.

TG: Did you talk about it with Jean?

JH: Yeah, he didn't agree, we both didn't agree. We agreed in Austria that, if it ever happened again, I would do as I was told. And that was it! But in Austria it happened again in qualifying.

TG: Have you ever read Jean's columns in the major Swiss Newspaper?

JH: I haven't read them because they are in German! I see some of them on his Internet site. The biggest problem I have with Jean now is, if he has a problem he should come to me and not go off to the press and mouth off. He is like a little kid sometimes, and little kids need to grow up.

TG: You spoke of the Internet, what software are you using?

JH: I have Internet Explorer. That's all I use. Version 3.2 or whatever it is.

TG: The version number is not that important, I think the latest is 4.0, but it's a bit like a Ford engine, it's not that stable!

JH: (laughs) Yeah, I better stick with it...

TG: What other things are you doing on the Internet?

JH: I just look around for some things that I have an interest in. It can be anything.

TG: Formula 1 related things?

JH: Sometimes Formula 1, sometimes travel, computer, technology things and I look around for software. Now I can use for example a palm pilot, but I couldn't get my e-mail. I went on the Internet and I found some software.

TG: David, your webmaster, told me that you'd said to your Dad that you were going to send him more e-more mails from testing and things like that. Do you send them from your palm
pilot now?

JH: (smiles) Yeah, I definitely should! The palm pilot is a bit difficult because you can't type. You can, but it's not that easy to do. I think I'll have to telephone... I try to do it sometimes, but to find the time is difficult and I can never do it properly. It's always 10 o'clock at night, I want to do it, I tell David I will, but I never get do it. [David: Johnny does manage to send e-mails sometimes - maybe he'll get a bit more time at Stewart next year!]

TG: Do you check your website regularly?

JH: I get on it and have a look, yeah!

TG: Have you visited mine?

JH: Ermmm, I don't think I found that one yet...

TG: Should I tell you the address, that maybe helps? It's www.pitlane.com. [David: OK, Thomas, I;ll allow you one shameless plug!]

JH: Pitlane, that's easy not to forget. Ok, I go and have a look. I'll leave an e-mail if I like it.

TG: On Usenet is a forum called rec.autos.sport.formula1, have you ever been there?

JH: No, haven't found it yet. I did some chats on IRC and I went to the AOL office to do one there.

[Johnny orders a Cappuccino, the clerk asks if he likes it with Sugar, "Yes, Zucker" he replies in a kind of "German"]

TG: When Heinz-Harald left Sauber he was asked what he would miss most. He answered "Schwiizerdütsch" (Swiss German). Have you learned any German words?

JH: No we always speak English. My mechanics have told me one thing to start: "Instalaff". Something like "I am a monkey"...

TG: That would be "Ich bin ein Aff"...

JH: Yeah, then I speak to somebody and... "Instalaff". He didn't understood it and made the same stupid face like you. Then I gave up.

TG: Have you learned something about Switzerland?

JH: Cuckoo clocks...

TG interrupts: Cuckoo clocks are German!

JH: Ohh, all you Swiss blame it on somebody else...

TG: Noooo, it is a Black Forest thing!

JH: No, it's bloody Switzerland! Cuckoo clocks, Toblerone, fondue, skiing, Gotthard tunnel that's about it.

TG: Do you drive regularly through the Gotthard tunnel from your home in Monaco to Sauber at Hinwil?

JH: No, you can't drive it, has too many cameras!

TG: I can well understand that! Did you ever get a speeding ticket in Switzerland?

JH: No, I just got one once in Austria. Only 22 kilometres in Austria and I got a speeding ticket! Some narrow thing and the limit was 15 kilometres. Ever since I've been in Formula1 I've been going slow...

There's another great photo taken by Thomas on the Fans' Photos page.

The above interview may not reproduced, in whole or in part, without permission.
Interview and photos © Thomas Gmür. All rights reserved.
This page prepared 25th September 1998.