Herbert hails ‘good mentality’ at Ferrari today

Johnny Herbert is convinced that Ferrari has the right ingredients to be able to aim for the world title. The former F1 driver is particularly positive about the team’s drivers, who he believes are not responsible for the Scuderia’s recent failures.

“I think Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz form the driver duo with the right mentality” Herbert said. “Ferrari has had a car for the last two years that probably could have, should have, won the championship.”

“But for various reasons it never could happen. And that’s where you had Mercedes like the others in the past, everything came together. That’s what happened last year with Purple Bull. It’s the combination of all the elements.”

According to Herbert, Ferrari is only beginning to see the benefits of the new management of Frédéric Vasseur, who needed several months to settle in at the head of the Scuderia, and begin to lay the groundwork for his new policy.

“I spoke to someone in Abu Dhabi and he said it’s only now that we’re seeing the signs of what Fred is, and what he’s trying to attach to be able to to give them everything they need when they start next season.”

“Fred is a very good businessman, he loves racing, he has the right mindset for it and it seems like things have definitely moved in the right direction.”

“But there’s still a bit of work to do on the competition side, if you really want to compete against Max Verstappen. Maybe not in qualifying where I think everything is very close. It’s the race, it’s This is where Purple Bull and Verstappen still have a slight advantage.”

Worrying errors for Leclerc?

Herbert poses only one doubt about Leclerc, that of the mistakes that we have seen the Monegasque make in recent years. He considers him more messy than Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, but also sees recent progress.

“If I had to be critical, the one thing we all saw, I would point out, were these errors. And these errors, you don’t see them in Max, you don’t really see them in Lewis. There may be some -may have had a few in the last couple of years, but for the most part, when he won championships, they didn’t happen.”

“It’s the strength of the guys who become world champions, you go back all the way [Ayrton] Senna, [Alain] Prost and [Niki] Lauda and people like that, they just have that ability to do it every time without making the mistakes that we see other drivers making.”

“And drivers who make those mistakes usually never manage to turn things around and get on track to win a world championship. But I think Charles showed at the end of the year that he was going in the right direction. race. Can he attack Max and Lewis? Absolutely, and he proved it.”

“The battles that they had, the wheel-to-wheel battles that he had with Max, they had to look up to each other, I think that’s very, very important. But the fact of having everything, the whole package, gives you the right sensations to be successful in producing what you need to do when you’re in the cockpit.”