This article is about the British racing driver. For other people of the same name, see John Herbert.

John Paul Herbert (born 25 June 1964 in Romford, London, England) is a British racing driver from England. He competed in Formula One, winning three races, and also in sports cars winning the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1991 driving a Mazda 787B. He enjoyed much success in lower-level motor racing but never managed to achieve the same level of performance at the top level of motorsport.



During the mid-1980s, Johnny Herbert was widely regarded as a coming man of motor racing, comparable to the Scot Jim Clark. Winning the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in 1985, Herbert caught Eddie Jordan's attention, and together they won the 1987 British Formula Three title. Disaster struck in 1988, though, as Herbert, then a championship hopeful in International Formula 3000 was caught up in a major accident at Brands Hatch, badly breaking his legs in a fearsome impact with the barriers. It was an act of huge bravery that saw him back in a racing car at the beginning of 1989, despite the fact he could barely walk. Even more remarkably, he was now in Formula 1, scoring points on his debut in Brazil driving for the Benetton team, then managed by his long time mentor and friend Peter Collins.

However, Herbert's performances could not keep up that standard, and with the Benetton team under new management, he was dropped after failing to qualify for the Canadian Grand Prix. Herbert returned to Formula 3000, this time in the highly regarded Japanese series. It wasn't long before he received another call from Grand Prix racing, this time Tyrrell. From 1990 to 2000, Herbert was a fixture in Formula One, switching to the dwindling Lotus team, now managed by Peter Collins.

During 1991, he also drove two rounds of the Fuji Long Distance Sports Car Series, co-driving a Mazda 787B, finishing fourth both times. His decision, at the July round, to stop his car and aid a fellow competitor, who had suffered a puncture at high speed, would earn him the Sportsman Award at the 1991 Autosport Awards.

After 3 years of frustration, Herbert left Lotus in mid 1994, joining Ligier and then Benetton for the last few races of the season. Although he failed to score any points in 1994, he was retained as Michael Schumacher's team-mate for 1995. At the British Grand Prix, he inherited a hugely popular Grand Prix win after Michael Schumacher collided with Damon Hill. He followed this in similar circumstances at Monza, finishing 4th in the championship.

After being dropped by Benetton, Herbert drove for Swiss outfit Sauber in 1996-1998, scoring two podium places. Moving to Stewart Grand Prix in 1999, he was routinely outqualified by his younger team mate Rubens Barrichello but scored his third and final Grand Prix win in a remarkable wet/dry European Grand Prix. Staying at Stewart after the team was purchased by Ford and became Jaguar, Herbert endured another frustrating and pointless season, ending the year being stretchered off at Malaysia after a suspension failure caused him to crash heavily.

Since retiring from Grand Prix racing, Herbert has concentrated on Sports Cars, trying to repeat his Le Mans 24 Hours overall win of 1991. Recent years have seen him as one of the front runners in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), where he won several events and was a challenger for the 2003 crown.

In 2004, Herbert, along with Jamie Davies won the Le Mans Series championship at the wheel of an Audi R8 winning the races at Monza and Spa along the way.

In 2005, Herbert was appointed to the post of Sporting Relations Manager at Jordan Grand Prix, which was then renamed Midland F1 for the 2006 World Championship. However, in September of that year Spyker Cars bought the team, and renamed it Spyker MF1. Another of the new owners' decisions was to not renew Herbert's contract.

In 2007, Herbert entered the Le Mans 24 Hours driving for the factory Aston Martin team at the wheel of the Aston Martin DBR9 in the GT1 class. Herbert, along with Peter Kox and Tomáš Enge drove the 007 numbered car to a 9th placed overall finish and 4th in the GT1 class.

In 2008, Herbert won the first season of the Speedcar Series.

In 2009, Herbert made his debut in the British Touring Car Championship for Team Dynamics at the wheel of a Honda Civic at round eight of the championship, Silverstone. He qualified 17th for the first race, and after moving up the order, finished in 13th. In the second race, he finished inside the points in eighth place, scoring three points. In the final race of the day, a reverse starting grid is operated. The first six, seven, eight, nine or ten cars to finish race two, start race three in reverse order. This is decided by the winner of race two drawing a number between six and ten out of a hat. For the final race of the day, the top 9 finishers were reversed, meaning Herbert started from second. He was running well, and was holding 4th, but was forced to retire on lap 13, after contact with Jason Plato. Herbert went on to compete in the final two rounds of the season.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Pts.
	Benetton Formula	Benetton B188	Ford V8	BRA 4	SMR 11	MON 14	MEX 15	USA 5	CAN DNQ	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN								14th	5
	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 018	Ford V8											BEL Ret	ITA	POR DNQ	ESP	JPN	AUS
	Camel Team Lotus	Lotus 102	Lamborghini V12	USA	BRA	SMR	MON	CAN	MEX	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN Ret	AUS Ret		NC	0
	Team Lotus	Lotus 102B	Judd V8	USA	BRA	SMR	MON	CAN DNQ	MEX 10	FRA 10	GBR 14	GER	HUN	BEL 7	ITA	POR Ret	ESP	JPN Ret	AUS 11		NC	0
	Team Lotus	Lotus 102D	Ford V8	RSA 6	MEX 7	BRA Ret	ESP Ret														15th	2
		Lotus 107	Ford V8					SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 6	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 13	ITA Ret	POR Ret	JPN Ret	AUS 13
	Team Lotus	Lotus 107B	Ford V8	RSA Ret	BRA 4	EUR 4	SMR 8	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN 10	FRA Ret	GBR 4	GER 10	HUN Ret	BEL 5	ITA Ret	POR Ret	JPN 11	AUS Ret		9th	11
	Team Lotus	Lotus 107C	Mugen-Honda V10	BRA 7	PAC 7	SMR 10	MON Ret														NC	0
		Lotus 109	Mugen-Honda V10					ESP Ret	CAN 8	FRA 7	GBR 11	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 12	ITA Ret	POR 13
	Ligier Gitanes Blondes	Ligier JS39B	Renault V10														EUR 14
	Mild Seven Benetton Ford	Benetton B194	Ford V8															JPN Ret	AUS Ret
	Mild Seven Benetton Renault	Benetton B195	Renault V10	BRA Ret	ARG 4	SMR 7	ESP 2	MON 4	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 1	GER 4	HUN 4	BEL 7	ITA 1	POR 7	EUR 5	PAC 6	JPN 3	AUS Ret	4th	45
	Red Bull Sauber Ford	Sauber C15	Ford V8	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	ARG 9	EUR 7	SMR Ret	MON 3	ESP Ret	CAN 7	FRA DSQ	GBR 9	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 9	POR 8	JPN 10		14th	4
	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber C16	Petronas V10	AUS Ret	BRA 7	ARG 4	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP 5	CAN 5	FRA 8	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 3	BEL 4	ITA Ret	AUT 8	LUX 7	JPN 6	EUR 8	10th	15
	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber C17	Petronas V10	AUS 6	BRA 11	ARG Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 7	MON 7	CAN Ret	FRA 8	GBR Ret	AUT 8	GER Ret	HUN 10	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	LUX Ret	JPN 10		15th	1
	Stewart Ford	Stewart SF3	Ford V10	AUS DNS	BRA Ret	SMR 10	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN 5	FRA Ret	GBR 12	AUT 14	GER 11	HUN 11	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	EUR 1	MAL 4	JPN 7		8th	15
	Jaguar Racing	Jaguar R1	Ford V10	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	SMR 10	GBR 12	ESP 13	EUR 11	MON 9	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	AUT 7	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 8	ITA Ret	USA 11	JPN 7	MAL Ret	17th	0

References

External links

• Herbert's website
• Johnny Herbert statistics