Johnny Herbert: George Russell to win the championship

The former Grand Prix and Le Mans winner believes Russell has the edge heading into the Australian Grand Prix, with confidence and connection to the new generation cars set to decide the title fight.

Speaking to the Snabbare media team, Herbert declared: “I’m going to obviously go with George Russell to win the championship. Then Max Verstappen, followed by Oscar Piastri. It would be brilliant to see Max and George go wheel-to-wheel. It’s going to be mighty, mighty tight between Oscar and Lando. Oscar is going to learn from the experience of last year. Motivation can be such a powerful thing and that’s why I’ve gone for Oscar because Oscar will be applying himself more than he did last year and has a point to prove.”

He had already laid down his top three: “The top three drivers this season will be George Russell, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.”

With Mercedes appearing competitive during testing, Herbert sees Russell as ready to take the final step and become World Champion this season.

For Herbert, raw pace alone will not determine the outcome. The decisive factor will be whether drivers can truly feel the car beneath them.

He explained: “As a driver, it doesn’t matter what it looks like, as long as it goes quick. It doesn’t matter if it looks beautiful and artfully crafted or it looks like a bit of dump truck or a dinky toy. It’s just how it will work. The cars all look quite similar, except the Aston Martin and that looks a little bit more out the box. Beautiful doesn’t always mean it’s quick!”

On technical development, Herbert continued: “They’ve all pushed the boundaries as you would expect. Some have come up with slightly different ideas, which is the Aston Martin. And I think even McLaren seems to have pushed those boundaries as well. It will be now down to making them work from all the data that they’ve had and all the work that they’ve done on the Sim work for the driver to actually be able to feel it as well.”

The human element, he insists, cannot be overstated and pointed to Lewis Hamilton’s struggles last year as evidence of how vital that feeling can be: “We know very much how it affects the human side of it when we saw what happened last year with Lewis Hamilton, where he was totally and utterly unable to feel what was going on in the car.

“And that’s where sometimes a driver has to, one, adapt, but secondly, there has to be that feeling, that connection with that steering wheel, and suspension to the tyre and that connection you have with the road,” Herbert added.

At Red Bull, Verstappen has made it clear he does not enjoy these cars. Nevertheless, there is a suspicion that the team are not revealing their full hand. Whatever the case The Dutch four-time World Champion can never be discounted, no matter what he is handed to drive.

Despite backing Russell, Herbert made clear that Verstappen remains the benchmark reference point: “If you haven’t got that, then your confidence is not going to be high, and then you’re not going to be able to push that. So that’s got to be a very important part to it. Some adapt better than others. I think the drivers who game adapt better. The younger cohort are so used to it.”

And on Verstappen specifically: “Max Verstappen plays a lot of those games, and he has that ‘seventh sense.’ But he still has to have that ability to feel what the car underneath him is doing. It doesn’t matter how good the car is; it could be the quickest car in the world.

"But if the driver can’t feel it, can’t drive, it doesn’t really matter. Then you have to adapt that car to try and make the driver feel happy in that cockpit. He after all is the last part of the jigsaw," explained the British motorsport veteran.

With Russell bked for the crown, Verstappen’s instinct and Piastri’s motivation complete Herbert’s projected podium in what he expects to be a tightly fought 2026 Formula 1 campaign.