{"id":13053,"date":"2025-08-27T09:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T09:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/?p=13053"},"modified":"2025-08-27T10:51:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:51:25","slug":"johnny-herbert-exclusive-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/johnny-herbert-exclusive-interview","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Herbert exclusive interview"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert explains how sim racing has become essential for modern Formula One success, giving drivers like Max Verstappen a crucial competitive edge. In an exclusive Thunderpick interview, Herbert warns young drivers who ignore virtual racing that “you will lose out<\/em>,” while discussing Lando Norris’s recent momentum against teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How important has the official F1 video game become to the sport as a whole and its drivers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: It’s all these different elements that we never had, and it’s now become the norm. It’s very beneficial because it can just drag in fans that were maybe not interested in it. They may have liked their racing, done karting, been successful, but it never quite worked out. But they can still have an enjoyment, and they still have an understanding of what it’s like to be in an F1 car because they are so close to the real thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sim world helps to give drivers that extra little edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know Max Verstappen loves sim racing. He\u2019s even been known to stay up all night sim racing the day before a Grand Prix! What do those extra hours do for him and other drivers in improving their performance in F1?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: I hate to say it because I never thought it would be the case that sims would be as powerful as they are. What it adds is another dimension and another capacity within your brain.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I have driven them, there\u2019s a certain numbness that is there, that is inherent in a game. But that numbness is actually something that happens in reality. You do have a car sometimes where you can’t feel it properly. The gaming, the sim racing, gives you that sense. And it’s a sense that you don’t think about because you’ve already felt it. But the ones who probably don’t do the sim, haven’t got the feeling. They just have the feeling there and then, then they don’t actually know what to do. Because Max has done it for so long, it’s just there, doesn’t even think about it, and it’s actually instinctive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s another capacity, a very small capacity, but any marginal gain is important. It is where that world has definitely become an important part of the real world. And it actually does work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How important is sim racing now as a training tool for drivers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny: It’s an unbelievably massive tool that is very, very beneficial. And the young drivers who don’t do it, listen to me: \u2018You should be doing it. If not, you will lose out!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the likes of Norris have invested their time and money into esports and gaming, what could we see Lewis Hamilton do next if he does retire from F1?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: At some stage he was looking at investing into Chelsea wasn\u2019t he? But most of the stuff that Lewis has done in the past has been stateside. The music is something that has always been on his mind and maybe that’s something he wants to go into. He’s obviously done a little bit with the F1 movie with Brad Pitt. So maybe it’s that type of thing he would find enjoyable. Maybe it’s going down the movie line, and maybe it’s going down the music line as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could Hamilton look at what David Beckham has done with his own MLS franchise and get similar ideas given the success of Lionel Messi\u2019s move to Inter Miami?<\/strong>\u201cAmerica has always been a big thing for him so maybe there is a link there. Maybe there\u2019s a link with a football club out there in the States. I always feel it’ll very much be state-based whatever he will probably do after his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: Football here is enjoying the same boom that F1 has been going through. Tom Brady at Birmingham, Ryan Reynolds at Wrexham. I know the Premier League has always been a big thing but it just seems, compared to anywhere else on the planet, that football there just seems to still be still growing and getting that interest from further afield. If he looked over here, then it would probably go back to the Chelsea link. There’s something close to his heart about football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Norris, his father is now heading up his own tech business. What role does Adam Norris have in helping Lando in F1?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: At the track it’s probably not such a big thing. Sometimes the driver just doesn\u2019t need that extra voice getting involved. But you do need that sort of nice support mechanism which his Dad provides, and his Mum who travels fairly often too. When you finish the day, you go back, you go to a restaurant, have your food and prepare yourself for the next day with people you know and trust. It’s just having that support mechanism there away from the track that’s probably the most important part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where does that big win in Hungary for Norris leave his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri?<\/strong>\u201cHe had the advantage. So that’s where he\u2019ll be frustrated with himself and think about what he could or should have done differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: But it was the performance of Lando that made all the difference at the end of the day. Oscar is also very fixed on driving as fast as he can and as consistent as he can to win that world championship. But I wonder whether he was thinking that he was in a stronger position against Lando and starting to get under his skin. I think he may have believed that. This is where Lando actually has picked him out and flipped him away. And he’s a thorn in his side now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I think that’s just the game where the whole dynamic has changed, from the beginning of the year to halfway through the season, where there is a stronger mentality from the other side of the garage. I don’t think Oscar was expecting that to happen. He just expected himself to keep on growing, keep on outperforming him and ultimately mentally destroying him. And that hasn’t happened. He’s actually fed the positivity that Lando is showing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lando’s realised that he’s had to up his game because of how good Oscar has been in the first part of season. It\u2019s quite an interesting dynamic now for the second part of the season. It’s that selfishness that has to come into play. McLaren have let them race and that’s all we want to see. Yes, they got close, but that’s racing, that’s what racing is all about. They got the one two anyway, so for the Constructors\u2019 title, they got exactly what they needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could Hungary be the moment for Norris that he looks back to as the turning point against Piastri?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: Yes, I think it was a defining moment. I think it was a very powerful win for him because of the way that he went about making it happen. The pressure that he was under at the latter part of the race was huge, and he absorbed all that pressure and was able to win that race. Like I said, it’s how these champions are made, by digging deep and coming up with these exceptional races. And I think that definitely was one of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of F1, Red Bull are a brand that has also heavily invested into esports and gaming, but on the track what do they need to do to get back to the top?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: The people that are now there, on the ground, the designers and aerodynamicists and the chassis guys and even with the power unit as well, they’ve got to prove themselves now. A lot of other people that have proven that they were a very important part of the Red Bull have gone. And now they\u2019ve declined in a very short space of time and it\u2019s how they rediscover the right mindset to be able to change their mentality to move it in a direction that is going to be more beneficial for 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That goes down to the aerodynamics and the chassis, but it also goes down to the power unit as well which is going to be a massively big test because it’s something they’ve taken on board themselves. That is a huge undertaking to be able to, one produce a Formula One engine with all the technology that’s involved, and two, to make it as good or better than the very experienced Mercedes-Benz, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course Red Bull are not going to be having any of that. They\u2019re just going to be this badged Ford engine, but done in-house. And it’s going to be interesting to see if they can do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can I see a bounce back next year? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cadillac will be coming to F1 as a new team in 2026 with a big link to the USA. There are rumours that they could bring Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas back to the grid. Do they have what it takes to lead this new team to glory?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Herbert: I raced in an era where the driver used to be listened to. The data in the cockpit is really sort of dominant now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was always impressed by what Bottas has done in his career, especially when he was up against Lewis. He was actually very close to Lewis, only a tenth or two. So, he was mighty, competitive. He’s been out for a little bit, but I think personally with everything that’s out there at present time, from an experience point of view, what Cadillac need is that experience to be able to help steer the team. And he has had experience at Mercedes which is not a bad thing. Then you’ve got Sergio who at Red Bull was the closest anyone has got to Max. He\u2019s learned how Red Bull works. So you’ve actually got experience from two of the best teams that would be very beneficial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a driver’s input is much less than it was. So I don’t think that’s such a problem. Personally, I don’t think it would be a bad thing but perhaps only for the short term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert explains how sim racing has become essential for modern Formula One success, giving drivers like Max Verstappen a crucial competitive edge. In an exclusive Thunderpick interview, Herbert warns young drivers who ignore virtual racing that “you will lose out,” while discussing Lando Norris’s recent momentum against teammate Oscar Piastri and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13053"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13065,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13053\/revisions\/13065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}