Herbert sick of tarnished champ

13 April 2012

Johnny Herbert won't be going home to Monaco for this weekend's grand prix. Nor will he be cheering if his one-time team-mate Michael Schumacher clocks up his sixth victory of the season on the narrow streets of the Principality.

Essex-born Herbert retains a flat in Monte Carlo which would give him a grandstand view of the race, along with the chance to catch up with his old mates in F1. But his appetite for the sport he loved so much has been soured by the methods of the driver whom some consider the greatest ever. For Herbert matters reached an all-time low when Rubens Barrichello was ordered to let Ferrari colleague Schumacher win in Austria.

"I know what it's like to be Michael's team-mate," said Herbert, who drove alongside the German at Benetton in 1995. "In Michael's position I would never behave as he does because I would never feel that I had properly won the world title. At least three of his four world titles have been won with help. I don't remember Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost ever needing anything like that.

"It's the absolute worst. I don't know how he can do it. I don't know how he can feel he's really world champion, although I'm sure he will be champion again this year. The whole point of racing is that the best man wins. But it's naive to believe that nowadays, because the best man isn't winning.

"Michael has tarnished his reputation and the value of the championship.

"He has won by batting down his team-mate, and it's not the first time he's done it. This year at the San Marino Grand Prix he took Rubens's car when Rubens was quicker than him before qualifying."

While Schumacher was gifted victory in Austria, Herbert's love of pure racing saw him repeatedly criss-crossing America last weekend as he attempted to qualify for next Sunday's Indianapolis 500 while honouring his commitment to race for Audi in the American Le Mans series. Something had to give, and it was his ambition to compete in the legendary Indy. Instead he flew back to California and risked everything at the Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sears Point, smashing his Audi into a concrete wall and skidding over the line at 155mph only to be pipped for victory by half a second.

"That's why I came here," he grinned, with a commanding Le Mans championship lead under his belt. "To get that sort of racing. I couldn't do that in Formula One."

But Herbert, 37, could not conceal his contempt for Schumacher's latest chapter of rank-pulling.

"Michael has never had to address the very first challenge a driver faces, which is beating the only guy in the same machinery," he said. "When I joined Michael at Benetton the team had just won the world title and I thought it was an opportunity for me to do the same. So I said publicly I wanted to win the world title. But when Michael was asked about that he said I was 'getting political'.

"That was when the problems began. At the Argentinian Grand Prix all Michael's data was taken away after practice so that I couldn't look at it and get the benefit. He saw mine, of course. Refusing to let me see his was something he asked for and the team agreed to it. The team shouldn't allow it. Ordering Rubens to give way wasn't fair. If he'd refused, I'm sure they'd have got rid of him."

Barrichello has frequently said his Ferrari contract does not state he must give way to Schumacher if ordered to do so. Herbert says his own contract also contained no such clause. It did stipulate he must act in the best interests of the team, which would probably have amounted to much the same had Herbert ever been ordered to let Schumacher past. But he never was, and he won two grands prix during his season with Benetton, while Schumacher won the world title.

Yet at the start of this season both Barrichello and Schumacher declared the Brazilian could win races by the usual means of being fast enough, without being forced to give way.

"That's just part of the usual hype," said Herbert. "Hype meaning lies.

"Lying is part of the game of Formula One. Michael is not up front about it, but he's up for all that. He's been working with the same people since his Benetton days, so they all know how it works. The silly part is he doesn't need to do it this way. He's only damaging himself."

As for the Monaco Grand Prix, Herbert isn't interested. Instead he will go to Indy on the off-chance that a drive will become available. If it doesn't, he will stay and watch for the pleasure of the pure racing.

F1 2002 - essential guide

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Herbert sick of tarnished champ

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