Herberts aims for win on debut

Previous Formula One driver Johnny Herbert is aiming for a victory in his British Touring Car Championship debut this weekend at Silverstone.
“A win is the only thing! My main thing is I want to be competitive. I don’t want to be near the back end,” said Herbert to BTCC.net.

Herbert spent a full day testing at Pembery as preparation for his tin top debut at Silverstone and felt positive afterwards.

“Very good, very positive. It gave me a chance to change the car which I didn’t get a chance to do at Rockingham when I first tested it last month after James Thompson had driven it in the morning.

Then the car felt nervous at the front and the aim of the test was to calm it down. There’s still a lot of work still to be done – I’m still learning it – but at end of the day the test has given me the chance to really start finding out about it,” said Herbert.

While Herbert has a lot of racing experience and has driven many laps around Silverstone, he has little experience of the shorter national circuit that he is going to race on this weekend.

“I’ve also still got to learn the short Silverstone National circuit we’ll be racing on this Sunday – the last time I raced on it was in British Formula 3 in 1987 and it’s not quite the same configuration as it was back then,” said Herbert.

Another thing Herbert is not used to is the frequent contact between the cars in the BTCC.

“There’s obviously a lot of contact week after week which makes the racing very exciting. I’ve not really been used to contact in the categories I’ve raced in and it’s not something I was very good at when I was in karting. So I need to be very aware of where other drivers are and aren’t on the track,” said Herbert.

The fact that his Honda Civic is very different compared to the Formula One cars he has driven is not bothering Herbert.

“It doesn’t matter what the category is, there has to be that essential understanding between driver and engineer, just the same as in F1. I’ve got to learn how these cars work and, believe me, they do work in their own way.

I’m kind of going back to a car like I had in my Formula Ford days – a relatively simple configuration but you still need to learn and know how to wring all the little tweaks out of it. Plus of course it’s got a bodyshell on top of it!”