Johnny Herbert: Max Verstappen is showing how brilliant he truly is, Lewis Hamilton needs a big race in China to keep control at Ferrari and how George Russell must respond to Toto Wolff’s next great project Kimi Antonelli

Johnny Herbert has called upon Lewis Hamilton to up his game or risk becoming a secondary concern for Ferrari after his disappointing debut in Australia in an interview with SpaceportSweden.

Speaking ahead of the second race of the season in China, Herbert also touched upon the impressive showing by Max Verstappen to keep competing despite the problems at Red Bull.

The former F1 driver also gave advice to George Russell over what he needs to do to keep ahead of Kimi Antonelli, the young starlet who has the favour of Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

Read the full interview below.

Question: What did you make of Melbourne as a curtain raiser?

Johnny Herbert: The order of running was almost the same as towards the end of last year with the McLarens, the Red Bulls and the Mercedes dominating. The one who probably threw a little bit of a spanner in the works, was Williams with both cars being in the top 10 on the grid.

Lewis Hamilton’s unhappy debut is an opportunity for Charles LeClerc who has already seen off one great Ferrari before

Johnny Herbert: The one thing we did learn was how quick Lewis’s teammate Charles LeClerc is. 

I always go back to when he first came into Ferrari when Sebastian Vettel was there, and Charles took over that team. He’s very strong mentally. The concrete has really set for him within the team.

Lewis was very happy after the little bit of testing they’ve done with the car. But the Ferrari didn’t  perform as well as we all expected it to. 

It is up to Lewis now to chip away at Charles who passed him at the end of the race. From a racing point of view he is the man who is more comfortable in the cockpit. 

We are now going to have to see how Lewis responds.

Ferrari are making bad decisions to undermine the potential of their driver ticket this season — no wonder Lewis was upset with them

Johnny Herbert: There were decisions made and strategy calls which were wrong. We’ve seen that before from Ferrari.

It has got a lot better. But they made the wrong call in Melbourne. That’s something they’ve got to get on top of.

Lewis was very vocal which is interesting. It’s going to be interesting to watch. Modern-day engineering – radio communication has got to work both ways and Lewis was very much sort of, ‘I know, I know, I know.’ 

It did seem fairly obvious that rain was coming! They stayed out there way too long. And then by that point, when the rain came, they were done. 

They were never going to be able to come back from it. It was a fundamental call to get the weather communications in a better place. Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren got it right.

Lewis needs a big performance in China or he could lose his grip on being the lead driver at Ferrari to LeClerc

Johnny Herbert: It was an important weekend this time out in Australia too. It was very instructive. Charles does seem to be very happy with the situation that he’s in. He’s comfortable with the car at the moment, although it is not competitive enough at the present time.

That is where Lewis has got to be able to put the pressure on, and by putting the pressure on, I mean beating him.

That’s what we need to start to see in China. It is early days, and the conditions were not great, but that’s no excuse. 

Lewis will be very frustrated with his performance. He needs to raise his game. He’s aware of it. We’re all aware of it, and I’m sure Ferrari are aware of it.

But he’s up against a very competitive younger man in Leclerc.

Lewis must learn from Schumacher’s example over how to tame the monster that is Ferrari

Johnny Herbert: He would have made his feelings known. But the cockpit is not always the right place to do it.

We have seen it from Michael in the past. I think the time to do it is actually when you have your debrief, and then you really have to try and iron it out and make sure everybody’s very aware that we can’t make this mistake again.

Anthony Hamilton showed what a great environment he built to make Lewis the right kind of champion in how he comforted Isack Hadjar

Johnny Herbert: I think what he did was lovely. It just showed that thought process that he’s had with coming through different ranks with Lewis and then he sees that happen to another driver and he’s there and he wants to put an arm around him and give him some kind words. 

I think it just shows he’s got the right emotional intelligence.

It’s not something you see very often, another father especially going up to another driver. I think it was kind, and I think it was lovely and hopefully that’s something that he will be able to take that positive energy with the words that he said to him in a difficult situation. 

Good on Anthony for doing that. It’s a shame because Hadjar did really well in qualifying on a circuit that’s really hard to get a lap time out of.

It’s a really good test for the drivers. The biggest thing as he mentioned was the embarrassment of going off on his way to the grid for his first Grand Prix. 

He just needs to harness all the positivity surrounding him.

It is an experience, it’s a harsh hard experience but I think he’s got a lot of positives to take from it and I think he will carry those through into China.

Dr Marko Helmut called Hadjar’s emotions embarrassing but all will be forgotten as he learns from what happened in Australia

Johnny Herbert: It is hard and the expectations are always very high. And when you do make those mistakes, it doesn’t matter if it was on the formation lap or lap one or lap 10, there’s always a certain amount of embarrassment because you crashed the car. 

Tears aren’t something we see very often. The biggest tears I remember was Rubens Barrichello when he won his first race at Ferrari, and he was pouring his eyes out when he was on the podium.

It’s nice to see emotion every now and again. We’ve all done things that we’re embarrassed about.

I know you can look at tears as a negative and say, ’You can’t be emotional in F1, and you’ve got to be hard.’

All the characters in the sport are different, every single driver on that grid.

Max is very harsh, and you don’t really see that sort of emotion from him. You don’t see that much emotion from Lewis. 

Some show it, others didn’t.  Michael Schumacher never did. He was inscrutable!

Hadjar will learn from this. He will take on board the type of comments from Helmut and he’ll make sure he won’t get himself in that situation again. 

It’ll get forgotten very, very quickly.

Kimi Antonelli proved he is the first among equals among F1’s rookies this year

Johnny Herbert: He’s had a very good test schedule in the run up to this first Grand Prix. Kimi did a really positive job, and his pace was pretty much on par or thereabouts with George.

So, there are really good signs. Considering the tricky conditions, he kept himself out of trouble. He put himself in the right places at the right time and was able to capitalize on it. 

Thankfully, he didn’t get the five second penalty for the unsafe release, which is when they saw some extra video which cleared him. When you have that review you have to have something that’s new. 

Overturning the five second penalty was the right decision.

It’s clear why Toto Wolff sees Antonelli as his project

Johnny Herbert: We’d seen it in his F3 and his F2. It’s something that Toto has been very keen on.

But it’s only one race, because we all know that it’s down to doing it every single time at every single track that you go to. But in those tricky conditions he’s got the chance in a car that does seem to be a little bit more competitive. 

With George and now with Kimi hopefully they’re going to be in a stronger position as the races go by.

What happened with Liam Lawson?

Johnny Herbert: It didn’t really happen for him at all. You have got to say that is a bit of a worry. It didn’t happen this weekend. Yes, it’s the first race. But fundamentally the pace wasn’t quite there, especially in qualifying and then of course he had the mistake in the race itself, which is always something that doesn’t go down very well. 

People might say it was really tricky. Yes, it was, but they’ve had so much experience from their karting days, Formula 3, Formula 2, they have been in a Formula 1 car before.

So, it’s not as if it’s the first time they’ve experienced it. But there are those extra little pressures that come into play. It’s something that you see where once again your teammate is doing a good job and you’re struggling that little bit.  It’s a mental game as we all know.

Hopefully the support mechanism at Red Bull will be able to put an arm around his shoulders and give him that reassurance that everybody is behind him. But at the end of the day, you have to deliver. It is now on him from China right through to the end of the season. He cannot make those sorts of mistakes. The pressure is on him to perform. 

Tsunoda had a strong weekend after being overlooked by Red Bull in the summer

Johnny Herbert: He did very well and got some positive comments from Helmut Marko and rightly so.

He showed a lot of raw pace, did it once again in qualifying, and he has improved himself as the years have gone by. So, it was good to see that performance from him, especially in qualifying. It’s something hopefully that Racing Bulls can capitalise on, especially in the early part of the season.

Have Red Bull made a mistake by choosing Lawson ahead of Tsunoda?

Johnny Herbert: We are going to have to wait and see. It’s always going to be down to the driver, who’s got to be able to perform.  Lawson has done 11 grand prix. He has got to raise his game. He’s got to be able to grab it by the scruff of the neck and deliver. Because if he doesn’t, then in a very short space of time, suddenly all those negative comments start to come out. And they start to get into your head. And then you have a double mental problem trying to get the best out of the car.

Verstappen had said the Red Bull wasn’t going to be really competitive, so he must be pleased with how things turned out?

Johnny Herbert: He drove brilliantly. He really did have that bit between his teeth. He was very aware that they have not quite got the car to beat McLaren at this particular time. 

But it is Max Verstappen and Max will always be in the mix. They’re not a million miles away, they are not far away and if they had a little bit of luck this weekend it could have been a very different story. 

He’s a real champion and you can’t write him off. He’s going to be there with thereabouts in China and the races after that. He will fight to the death. You can’t rule him out. 

The performance of the car wasn’t that faraway. That’s why he was only a second behind Lando going over the line.

Poor old Jack Doohan was desperately keen to make an impression on his home track, but it didn’t go well did it?

Johnny Herbert: He made an impression, it was just the wrong impression!

He did very well throughout the weekend going to qualify with all the pressure on him and all the ramblings about Colapinto and Flavio Briatore. Then unfortunately it went a bit awry for him in the race.

These are the best drivers in the world with the best cars in the world and you can’t make those mistakes. That goes for all the other drivers who did make mistakes, even Carlos Sainz.

There were a lot of other drivers that didn’t go off the circuit. Kimi didn’t go off the circuit and he was one of the least experienced guys on the track.

Given how many of the rookies struggled in Australia, is F1 having too much of a good thing by pushing so much youth into the mix?

Johnny Herbert: No, it is good. It’s good to see the next generation that are there. You have two guys. Lewis and Fernando who are towards the end of their careers and you want to see these young whipper snappers come in. 

We have seen some really good talent come through F3 and F2 over the last couple of years. Bortoletto is one of those. He did a good job in qualifying. It didn’t work out for them in the race, and he was another one that made a mistake.

He impressed me. Kimi did a great job in the race so that’s good to see and he’s in a high- pressure team. Bortoleto’s not. so there’s a little bit less pressure and less expectation.

Some guys are able to jump in a car and do the job straight away. This new generation is something that is only going to be exciting for the future and we’ve got a good few talented young ones who are going to be in a hot seat at some point in their careers.

What did you make of Mercedes overall?

Johnny Herbert: All I would say is they were quite literally in the same position as they were last year in many respects. It wasn’t really a jump forward.

But it was the normal order of things in the top 10.

Alpine probably dropped out. One of the worst ones was Hass. They were the ones who completely dropped off the radar compared to where they were last year. 

That was a bit of a disaster for Ollie Bearman. And for him, with all the positive stuff that we had in his first race at Ferrari, all the positive stuff with those couple of races that he had with Haas and then he had a nightmare over this weekend. But it’s one of these situations where you’ve got to go, ‘It was tough, it’s done, let’s reset and start again.’

Bearman has shown that he’s got the strength to get through it. The biggest challenge he’s going to have is fighting against Ocon. That’s really what he’s got to focus on, because they’re not in position at the moment where points are probably going to be available. All he can aim to do is beat his teammate.

What was your biggest takeout from the weekend? 

Johnny Herbert: I think it was Lando and his maturity which shone. That’s something that we wanted to see. Even he was critical of himself last year. But it looks as if he’s really, really worked hard to put himself in this position.

I think this is where he’s suddenly going to be taking control of the situation that he that Max had control of last year. So this is a really important time for Norris to be able to capitalize and take control of this and put pressure on Max for the first time. Before it was the other way around.

He’s now going to be the one who’s the hunted instead of doing the hunting.

That’s a positive thing for him because I think he’s more than capable of coping with being hunted.

He’s got a teammate who’s hunting him in his own garage, as well and one (Max) next door. That’s only a good thing and with everything that I saw this weekend I thought he was brilliant.

I know it’s early days, but from what we’ve seen can McLaren take both titles?

Johnny Herbert: Yep. Nothing has changed! This is a great opportunity for them given what is coming in 2026. This is their time.

Lando to win, Oscar second. He’s really going to be very hungry to keep himself in the mix. He probably isn’t really thinking so much about Max. I reckon he’d be thinking about Lando.

If he beats him, then he wins the championship. 

Third Max.  Four is George. He has such a confident way about him. He beat Kimi who always has Toto’s arm around him.  He’s really taken to being number 1.

Kimi could well finish fifth 

How does George deal with all this fawning over Antonelli?

Johnny Herbert: Be himself. George is just very confident, he knows why he’s there, he knows how to work within the Mercedes system, he knows how to apply himself out of the cockpit, he knows how to apply himself when he gets in the cockpit.

He’s super confident. Some people think it’s arrogance. What’s wrong with being arrogant? Max has got arrogance, Michael had arrogance. Senna too. They’ve all got arrogance, and you need a certain amount of arrogance.

It’s about how you  put it out to the world to see and George I think does it very well for the world to see.

That’s what we are now seeing from Lando too. George has always had this confidence. Lando is growing into that. 

George is very aware of Kimi and Toto. But George has had a wonderful experience with him, with Lewis.

It’s a positive thing for Mercedes; one guy who’s taking over the mantle and they can focus on hopefully maturing Kimi. It will be very tough for Kimi because George is always the one who’s the leader of the team.

The toughest part for the Kimi is how do you beat George? On the track yes, but you’ve got to beat him in the garage, you’ve got to beat him in the debriefs, you’ve got to beat him back at the factory. And that’s where George comes across someone who’s a very hard nut to crack.