Johnny Herbert in 1998

Johnny stays with Sauber and from the winter testing it looked like the Sauber was not going to be that competitive. However, Johnny performed a 'masterpiece of controlled aggression' in qualifying and was able to start the grid in a fantastic 5th place, 2 seconds faster than new team mate Jean Alesi. In the race Johnny was in a fight with Jacques Villeneuve and Fisichella and could probably have gone a lot faster. A one stop pit stop strategy and good reliability saw Johnny bring the car home in a fine 6th place. Well done Johnny.

Finished 6th

Well Johnny had a disastrous Interlagos. Friday practice saw him not doing any laps at all due to an electrical problem. Then he had a big crash off in the warm up and had to use the spare. He qualified in 14th place and could only have hope to improve things in the race. He was not able to and was forced to retire 5 laps from the end.

Retired lap 67

Well South America was bad news for Johnny. Qualifying wasn't brilliant with Johnny in 12th place on the grid. Things were improved for the race and Johnny was battling to get in the points, however Damon made a silly mistake and took poor Johnny out by crashing into the back of him. Johnny was forced to rally-cross into the pits to retire from the race. Johnny was not a happy bunny which was most unlike him. Johnny could possibly have been in the points and with a good performance from Jean Alesi, it must look encouraging for the start of the European season for Sauber

Retired, accident with Damon Hill

Poor Johnny, he is not a lucky man. After a difficult start to the season Johnny was hoping to get a good result. Qualifying was not great but again he was ahead of Jean Alesi in 11th place. The start was a bit scrappy but the car let him down early in the race and he was not able to get into those point scoring places. Jean Alesi finished 6th and hopefully it will be Johnny's time for the points at the next race

Retired

Johnny showed some great performance in Spain and finished one of the warm up sessions third fastest. A good qualifying result was on the cards and Johnny ended up with 7th place on the grid, possibly a little disappointed but still a good performance. He had a race with Damon for a large part of the race and was able to keep him at bay, however he was not able to get into the points and had to settle for 7th. His car was reliable though and Johnny will be hoping this remains so for the notorious car breaker race, Monaco, where a points finish will certainly be on the cards if not the podium

Finished 7th

Once again Johnny managed to outqualify team mate Alesi to take 9th place on the grid. However Johnny didn't make a great start and Alesi and Trulli managed to get past him. These places were going to be hard to take back and being in 11th place it was looking unlikely there would be enough retirements to get Johnny up in to the points. This proved to be the case with Johnny bringing the car home for 7th place. Let's hope it doesn't become a season of 7th places for poor Johnny.

Finished 7th

Poor Johnny! He was not a lucky man in Canada. Qualifying was not brilliant as he had problematic warm-up sessions which meant he hadn't found the right set up and he only managed to take 12th on the grid. Also, Johnny was lucky to be able to take part in the race after the first start where he came a cropper in amongst Wurz's accident, along with team-mate Jean Alesi. This meant Alesi had to use the spare which meant Johnny had to use a repaired race car and start from the pit. Johnny drove brilliantly in the race to quickly make the places up to 8th. However, Johnny was forced to walk back to the pits yet again when the car eventually gave up.

Retired

Testing for Sauber in the run up to France seemed to indicate that the Sauber had found some serious speed from somewhere. However this didn't seem to be the case on race weekend and Johnny was only able to qualify in 13th place. Things did improve in the race and Johnny was up to 8th place before long, however there seemed to be some problems with the car during the race and Johnny was not able to get towards those points and had to settle for and 8th place.

Finished 8th

Johnny's a previous winner of Silverstone, but it was unlikely to be repeated in 1998. The Sauber hasn't been performing as well as Johnny would have liked but a podium was still a possibility. Qualifying was fairly useful with an 8th place, and a few made up places would certainly see a points finish. However, Johnny despite running extremely well in 4th place for a while, was told by his team to let a faster Jean Alesi past him. In the procedure there was a slight lack of concentration from Johnny and he spun off in the appalling wet conditions into the gravel trap. Although he was pushed back onto to track, Johnny knew he would be black flagged and he parked up in the pits, providing the British fans with their 3rd disappointment. Let's hope Johnny's run of bad luck ends in Austria and we see some points for him.

Retired, spun off

Johnny was hoping for some good fortune and some points in Austria. Unfortunately, the sun wasn't shining for poor Johnny. In the rainy qualifying session, Johnny was not able to get any higher than 18th on the grid, which must have been rather hard to take with team-mate Alesi qualifying 2nd place. So in the race Johnny was left to plod along and try and make up as many places as he could. Unfortunately he was not able to make up enough and had to settle for a disappointing 8th place. Next race for some points? Hopefully!

Finished 8th

Well it seems that Johnny is having a bad season with Sauber this year. He qualified in 12th place and it was unlikely that he would reach the points at Hockenheim. However, Johnny plodded on throughout the race hoping for some retirements to improve his position. Sadly, this proved not to be the case with very few retirements and 8 laps from the end Johnny became one of these people with a hydraulics problem.

Retired, hydraulics

Well there's not too much to say about poor Johnny. Hungary was another Grand Prix where the Sauber wasn't running too well. He only qualified 15th in the poorly handling Sauber, and the race was going to be another 'Let's see how many places I can make up' race. He eventually finished 10th making up 5 places. Johnny will be hoping for much more in Belgium.

Finished 10th

Johnny had the usual unlucky race weekend. Qualifying was middle of the road with only 12th place. There was carnage on the 1st lap and there had to be a restart. For Johnny though there was another spin on the restart, that of Mika Hakkinen, and he was unable to avoid contact which broke the car. There was no restart and so Johnny was left out of the race. There was a good performance from team-mate Jean Alesi with a 3rd place and hopefully this will be the start of a luckier time for Johnny and Sauber.

Retired

We came into Italy with the knowledge that Johnny will be driving for Stewart in 1999, and thank God for that! The Sauber has not been at all kind to him lately. The qualifying saw a low down 15th place, hmmn points would be difficult. However, yet again Johnny was in with no luck after a spanner, yes a spanner!, put him out of the race on the 13th lap. One stupid Sauber mechanic had left one in the cockpit and it lodged itself under Johnny's pedals. Things can only be better with Stewart next year.

Retired

2 races to go for Johnny Herbert at Sauber and we all think, thank god for that. The Sauber has been performing badly of late and Johnny had the usual weekend. 13th on the grid and a retirement from the race through no fault of Johnny's. Roll on 1999 for Johnny.

Retired

Japan was going to be Johnny's last race for Sauber, and a reasonable result would have been nice. The Sauber team got the cars on the grid in 11th and 12th with Johnny having the edge over team-mate Alesi. From here a points finish couldn't be ruled out but it was going to be hard work. Sadly at the start Johnny was very nearly the cause of yet another restart when he stalled the engine too, however, it was too late to do anything about stopping the race. So Herbert was at the back and he pushed hard to get back in contention, which he did very well. However although the Sauber was just fast enough to get past the likes of the Benetton team as team-mate Alesi proved it wasn't for Johnny as he had to left himself at lot to do and had to settle with a lowly 10th place. Johnny will be hoping for better things with Stewart next year, and I'm sure the Stewart team will have a far more successful year with him behind the wheel.

Finished 10th