Johnny Herbert in 1999

Johnny was on a bit of a roll coming to Japan and he would have been hoping to increase his number of world championship points in the last race under the Stewart name. Qualifying was reasonable, with Johnny once again outqualifying Rubens Barrichello for 8th spot. It looked like a points finish would be on the cards. Sadly Johnny remained just outside the points in 7th place. The Williams of Ralf Schumacher only managed to get 2 points and so Stewart deservedly managed to keep their 4th place in the constructor's championship. Johnny will now be looking forward to an exciting 2000 under the name of Jaguar. Let's hope we see more wins for Johnny!

Finished 7th

Johnny came to Malaysia very much on a high after that superb win at the Nurburgring, and it seems to have lifted his spirit tremendously after all the bad luck he had. The Stewart was going very well at the new Sepang circuit and the two cars managed to get 5th and 6th spot on the grid behind McLaren and Ferrari, and with Johnny outpacing his team mate. At the start Johnny dropped back a place and Barrichello was ahead of him, but it later proved Johnny had a much heavier fuel load. Johnny decided to 1 stop but Barrichello 2 stopped, and 1 stop was the better way to go so Johnny was in 4th. When Mika Hakkinen pitted for his 2nd stop, Johnny found himself in a podium place, however he was unable to keep the flyin Finn behind him and eventually had to make do with 3 championship points. Nevertheless a good result for our Johnny and he is setting the scene for a new era under the Jaguar brand.

Finished 4th

Well how many times have a said that Johnny's luck needs to change? Well it certainly did at the Nurburgring. Qualifying wasn't very good with the Stewart only making 14th place but ahead of his team mate for a change. So at this point nobody would have put money on Johnny winning a race! But the good luck stick was playing all it's cards for our Johnny. Johnny read the conditions perfectly and was on the right tyres at the right time and was able to leap up the field. Then there were a number of retirements from the lead Frentzen, Coulthard, Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher all ran into difficulties and Johnny was there to take up the reins. Johnny is well known for being there at the end and this time it really mattered. Johnny took and outstanding win by 20 seconds, very much to the delight of Jackie and Paul Stewart who got their first win still with the Stewart name on the car. A bet there was a huge party in their garage. Well done Johnny.

Finish 1st (Yes FIRST!!)

Poor Johnny, there's not much to say other than it was another unlucky race for him. Poor qualifying, a better race, only to retire with Mechanical problems. Surely Mr. Luck will shine on our Johnny some time!

Retired

The Stewart car seems to have dropped back a bit in terms of performance recently. Qualifying for both cars was a bit disappointing with Johnny in 10th and Rubens in 7th. The race didn't go too well either, and once again Johnny was the unlucky one who was having problems witht the set up on car and he went off the track a couple of times, 17 laps from the end, the 2nd one bashing the barriers and putting poor Johnny out. Johnny still has his contract for Stewart next year, and it seems likely he will keep his place now, but some good results are needed for the Stewart team.

Retired

Well Johnny's weekend was uneventful. Once again he was outqualified by Barrichello, and 10th on the grid wasn't looking too great for any points. Johnny didn't make much of an impression on the race and eventually finished down in 11th place. However, both Stewarts made the race distance and hopefully this is an indication that reliability is back with the team. I fear that Johnny may need some better results if he is to stay with the team for next year.

Finished 11th

God damn, is Johnny's luck ever going to change?! Another weekend up the shoot for Johnny who must be getting really frustrated cos he really is on the pace now. A high speed accident saw him sit out the warm up sessions on Saturday and so he missed valuable set up time, and was therefore on able to qualify 17th. The race was different though and Johnny had stormed through the field to 9th after a few laps. He was looking dead set for a points finish too in the later stages of the race, but 4 laps from the end Johnny's bad luck hit him once again and he was out with mechanical problems. Please Please let Johnny have some better luck in Hungary!

Finished 11th

Well Stewart have made changes to their car and Johnny has given them the thumbs up, finally being able to drive the car how he likes to. He qualified well in 6th place just behind his team mate and it was looking great for the race. However, once again the bad luck arrow was still aiming firmly at Johnny and at the start Herbert found himself minus a rear wing after Salo had run into the back of him in the mayhem that saw Coulthard put Mika in a spin. Johnny was down 4 laps by the time he rejoined the race and basically it became a test session. A good test session it was, his car was reliable and very much on the pace with Johnny putting up the 2nd fastest lap of the race. The Ford engine is improving all the time and the new power will be needed in Hockenheim so hopefully that Stewarts will be able to make the most of it there.

Finished 14th

Johnny will have been hoping the British GP would provide him with a change of fortune. Qualifying was pretty much the norm, with Barrichello once again outperforming Johnny, who had to settle for 11th place on the grid. However the race was a much better performance. He got a good start and with a couple of safety car incidents Johnny had got himself up into the points in 6th place. At that point it looked like all 4 of the British drivers would be scoring points at their home Grand Prix. Unfortunately Johnny Herbert was then penalised for passing a slow Jean Alesi under yellow flags and was forced to take a 10 second pit stop which put him out of contention and he eventually finished 12th. A good performance though and hopefully Austria will provide a change of fortune.

Finished 12th

Well it was the same old story with poor Johnny. The usual weekend of being outqualified by Rubens who took an amazing pole position, and the bad luck continuing in the race being the first person to retire with mechanical problems. Rubens took an excellent 3rd place. Let's hope that Johnny has better luck in the British GP.

Retired

Poor Johnny was looking for a good result in Canada after a disappointing start to the season. Fortunately to Johnny's relief he didn't get to see Louise Goodmand this weekend! Qualifying was a little off compared to Rubens Barrichello, but 10th place was OK with the midfield so close to each other at the moment. He made a brilliant start and made a few places up on lap one, and the car definately had some pace. So Johnny was able to push hard and he kept right in the running for the points all race. He eventually finished 5th and got 2 very well deserved points for the newly Ford owned Stewart team. Johnny can look forward to France now that he has some points in the bag.

Finished 5th

Well Stewart didn't have a great weekend in Spain. Johnny again qualified a lowly 14th. He made a good start in the race however, and was up to 11th after a couple of laps. However, the reliability bug struck again and Herbert had to retire with a mechanical failure midway through the race. Let's hope Stewart can fix the relibility problems in time for Canada where Stewart have done quite well in previous years.

Retired

Another disappointing race for Johnny, when is Mr. Luck going to shine on him. Qualifying was a bit disappointed with Johnny claiming 13th on the grid. The race seemed to be going fairly well for Johnny and he was making places up and it looked like a reasonable finish would have been on the cards. However on lap 33 Johnny's rear suspension failed, and some good reaction driving avoided the barriers but he was out nonetheless. The Stewart has some reliability problems and Johnny will need to be a bit more fortunate in Spain.

Retired

We know the Stewart is fast and Johnny would have been hoping to prove this in San Marino. Qualifying was a bit of a disappointment, with Rubens being able to get 6th position and Johnny only managing 12th. However, in the Sunday's warm up Johnny found some speed and it looked like a good result in the race was possible. Johnny raced very well and he was up to 5th place and looking like securing some well-deserved points when his engine decided to let go 3 laps from the end. Another race of terrible luck for poor Johnny, let's hope his luck changes in time for Monaco.

Classified 10th

Well Johnny doesn't quite seem to have found his feet fully at Stewart yet. Again Johnny was outqualified by Rubens Barrichello and Johnny was only 10th on the grid compared to Rubino's excellent 3rd. Still if luck goes Johnny's way you can always expect him to be in the points at the end from 10th. However, luck was AGAIN not Johnny's side and his car retired on lap 15 with mechanical problems. It was a real shame. Rubens also went out later and that throws question marks over Stewart's reliability, however, the car is 10 times better than last years and if it finishes with no problems you can expect some podiums

Retired lap 15 with mechanical problems

The Stewart seems to be the big surprise of 1999 so far. The car is extremely fast and in the warm up sessions Barrichello and Johnny were getting as high as 3rd fastest. We were therefore expecting great things. In qualifying Johnny experienced problems compared to team mate Rubens and he had to settle for 13th, disappointing in comparision to Barrichello's excellent 4th place. We hoped that the race would see Johnny storm through the field. However, on the parade lap both Stewart's experienced fires and with the spare set up for Barrichello, we never saw any racing laps from Johnny. However, we can take heart that the Stewart is on the pace and is a considerable improvement on last year's Sauber. Maybe we will even see Johnny win this year.

Retired after fire on warm up lap.