I was a teammate of Michael Schumacher in Formula 1 and this is how I preserve his greatest skill at Lewis Hamilton’s children’s circuit.

Johnny Herbert wants his name to command more respect, and even those who race him today have no doubt about his qualities.

The three-time Formula 1 race winner, 60, was just 1.058 seconds behind Lando Norris at the Buckmore Park karting track.

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Herbert retired from racing 24 years ago – 12 years less than the age difference between him and McLaren star Norris.

That’s not why he’s so impressive.

It’s also not that Norris has come full circle ahead of the 2023 season, in which he scored 205 points at the World Championships.

And that the 24-year-old, who was returning to Buckmore Park where he had one of his first karting races in 2008, was given a clear track to set a personal best while Herbert maneuvered between nine unlucky newbies. in his second karting session of the day.

Instead, it was a comment the veteran made to me as I waited for my numb fingers to open and enter my phone’s password to order an Uber home—so someone else could drive.

Herbert raced with some of the greatest Formula 1 stars of all time and even Prince Harry at the same circuit in Chatham (this is now my third connection with the Duke of Sussex after a shared love of the TV show Suits and the fact that redheads hair runs throughout the family).

But among all these big stars, he was worried about trying to beat a man without rights. Not because it’s easy. Not because I braked as late as Lewis Hamilton, without having any of the ability of a Mercedes star.

Herbert wasn’t even afraid of the prospect of our cars colliding at the hairpin and sending us both to the hospital. In fact, the fact that we didn’t crash was almost what annoyed him.

As soon as I realized that Michael Schumacher’s former teammate had detonated a dive bomb inside the circuit’s first hairpin, I instinctively swerved.

Hearing my reasoning, Herbert laughed loudly and said: “Never do that… Michael wouldn’t do that, Max (Verstappen) wouldn’t do that!”

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From this little anecdote, it is clear that Herbert is the personality a driver needs to reach the pinnacle of motorsport.

This is also a personality trait that the British are used to dealing with.

Herbert was Schumacher’s teammate in the first two of his seven world titles at Benetton in 1994 and 1995.

He was also part of the FIA ​​stewards panel that decided to sentence Verstappen to community service for swearing.

In an exclusive interview with talkSPORT, Herbert, while not criticizing three-time world champion Red Bull, explained: “Character is very important in all sports.

“They are definitely important in Formula 1. And I have to say that I think we have a good team who have a good sense of humor.

“It seems like a pretty tight-knit group of drivers that I honestly haven’t seen up close for quite some time, but the rebellious streak has always been part of it I think. When you see Ayrton (Senna) and (former FIA president Jean-Marie) Baleste in the film Senna, you see it once in the film, but it happened every race weekend we had.

“So these characters have always been here. Michael (Schumacher), another character, Mika (Häkkinen), and also Sebastian (Vettel), the list goes on.”

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Herbert’s name is often unfairly excluded from this list, despite the fact that he needs more character than all of the above to simply get into karting.

In August 1988, he was on the verge of a breakthrough Formula One career when he filled in for Lotus’ regular drivers during tire testing at Monza and immediately outpaced reigning world champion Nelson Piquet.

Later that month, Herbert had a life-changing encounter that saw him admit to talkSPORT that he is still “tough and sore” almost four decades later.

His feet and ankles were broken while competing in the International Formula 3000 at Brands Hatch and doctors said he would never walk again.

In his F1 Racing column in 1998, Herbert said: “I remember lying in intensive care while all the doctors discussed what to do with me. What I didn’t know was that they were all convinced of one thing: my driving career was a failure. over.

“Initially it was about what pieces they could cut. Then, once they realized what I did for a living, the question became more about how they would try to fix this mess and whether I would ever be able to walk again. I didn’t know about all this, but my parents and Becky, my wife, had to endure it all.”

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Herbert could remain in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Instead, less than seven months later, he finished fourth on his Formula One debut, behind winner and world champion Nigel Mansell, four-time world champion Alain Prost and local hero Mo Gugelmin.

Crucially, he bested teammate Alessandro Nannini, whose 7.7-second gap in sixth was a larger time gap than Herbert could make up for this reporter at Buckmore Park.

During three years of battling injuries, he overtook Schumacher to claim Mazda’s only triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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Such was the demand he placed on his body that Herbert famously failed to make the podium after being rushed to hospital after missing a double leg and later collapsing while crossing the finish line traits.

For the remainder of the 1990s, Herbert separately partnered with two of Formula One’s greatest rivals of all time, Schumacher and Heikennen.

This golden era of motorsport included the brilliant achievements of Senna, Mansell, Prost, Hill and Villeneuve, but among it all were Herbert’s three Grand Prix victories.

That’s the same as Norris and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and one more than Hamilton’s teammate George Russell and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Herbert interviewed all of these names during his post-competition career as a former Sky F1 pundit analyst.

His frequent returns to the grid reunite him with the drivers of his era, but few, past or present, understand his ongoing pain.

Herbert exclusively told talkSPORT: “I think everything I went through during the accident is very forgettable given the severity of the accident at the time, and actually having the success I had when I got into Formula One, Do I sometimes feel that I am not given due attention? Sometimes yes, I have to be honest.

“But I think it’s just because people aren’t very aware of the damage I have. my other fellow drivers, none of them had the same pain as me.

“So it would be nice for people to (admit) – Some people do this…”

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One of those who does is seven-time world champion Hamilton, to whom Herbert pays a fitting tribute when we sit down to talk in Buckmore Park.

It was at the iconic Kent karting track that the GOAT Formula 1 team’s rise through the ranks began when he caught the attention of McLaren boss Ron Dennis during the televised Future Champions event in 1996.

The other is Verstappen, whose father Jos had been replaced as Schumacher’s teammate at Benetton by Herbert two years earlier.

Herbert added: “I have to say that people like Lewis, for example, I think Max (Verstappen) too, they understand what happened to me and that, you know, is nice.

“It’s nice for people to know what happened to me.”

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I thought I was aware of this too when, after our chat filled with humor and nostalgia, a man was left hunched over and limping towards his kart, ready to watch the red lights turn green for the umpteenth time in his life.

It was for this reason that, two corners ahead of Herbert, I finally understood Peter Crouch’s karting dilemma when he was sandwiched between Xabi Alonso and Dirk Kuyt a few days before Liverpool’s Champions League final against Milan.

Like former England striker Crouch, I deliberately avoided contact with the star of the track and gave myself a whiplash, crashing into the NPC next to me.

But that’s what makes the best – it’s not what Schumacher would do, and certainly not what Herbert considers real racing, no matter what his state of mind.

“Would I have become world champion without the accident?” Herbert reflected with me. “I believe it could be… but it’s not!”

The interview with Johnny Herbert was conducted through the Genting Casino, where fans have the chance to win a VIP trip to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Please click here for more details.