Johnny Herbert exclusive
Johnny Herbert: McLaren’s rivals have gone to the FIA about their flexible wing and that’s why it is under investigation — I saw it for myself last season in Azerbaijan; we’re also seeing why Lando Norris really can be champion in 2025
Johnny Herbert has explained why McLaren’s flexible wing has again come under the scrutiny of the FIA based on his experience as a steward last season when it was assessed around the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in an interview with CasinoAppsThatPayRealMoney.
The former F1 driver has also praised Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for how they responded to pressure of the first race of the season in Melbourne, with the British driver showing he has the mettle to stand up to Max Verstappen this year.
He also covered off the performances of Aston Martin and Wlliams in Australia as fans and media began to look ahead to China.
Read the full interview below.
McLaren are under the microscope because their car is too good and their rivals have petitioned the FIA to take away their wing advantage
Johnny Herbert: They had a lot of issues with the rear wing falling backwards. This is about the gap, which is the main plane, which is the big thick bit and then the DRS flap. It’s that gap that’s moving and basically they still have this epoxy tooling block that fits in. This is the standard thing with the FIA requirement that’s there. That’s where the 75kg is then tested.
So it’s a very thin edge at the back of the back of the wing, which is called the trailing edge and it’s that that is obviously flexing around. What that does is the DRS flap goes from three millimeters and then it opens up to about 50 millimeters or whatever. There’s a big gain.
There’s a gain with this, but it’s probably, it’s much, much smaller, but it’s still a game and it’s a flex that I would presume everybody’s starting to work on, which goes back to what happened in Azerbaijan with McLaren last year.
It’s popped its head before and this is a directive to stop that flex where there is a slight performance gain. It could be giving a kilometer gain, for example, and a kilometer is a kilometer, and if it’s in a racing situation it’s harder to pass something that’s going one kilometer faster than you are because it’s more efficient, it’s less drag that it’s creating.
So it will go faster in a straight line than someone else would be able to potentially achieve, better than others, but there’s always going to be a team that all the other teams are going to be looking at, they’re always looking at each other and saying, well, they’ve got an advantage.
If there is an advantage down the straight from this wing, they’re gaining that advantage and that’s what they will look into, and then they will have a word with the FIA, then the FIA will look into it, which is why the cameras were put on the cars in Australia. If they’ve deemed it to be an issue, they’ll tighten up that loophole, so to speak.
Instead of having three millimeters literally saying you’ve got none. No flexibility to make that wing flex, which means they put a lot of energy in trying to gain from that three millimeters, and if you reduce it to zero then the lack of gain means it’s not worth doing it. They might gain half a millimeter or a millimeter but that doesn’t do anything. They’re just controlling it so much more.
It did come up with McLaren last season so it has been something that has been looked at before but I think the FAA, with their checks they did in Australia, they’ve gone ‘OK we’ve given you 20 millimeters, we’re now not going to give you anything.’
Whenever you read the rules there’s never supposed to be any flexibility but you can’t make anything completely and utterly rigid. It’s impossible to do that. But what they can do is try and tighten up those little performance gains that are there.
Does it make any difference to the show? Potentially it can because one team may be able to benefit more than another so the other teams will also try and close that loophole to stop that team from gaining an advantage with the car that is the one that is everyone is racing against and this time around it’s the McLaren.
So it’s a typical situation. Other teams are trying to stop someone having an advantage over them, full stop. Is it the right thing? I don’t have a problem with it being tightened up.
Are McLaren doing things that the other teams haven’t done at the moment or are they pushing the limits? No, this is just part of what Formula 1 is always about and they’ve done the better job.
Lando Norris stood up to Max Verstappen in Australia and that will give him the confidence to go on and become a champion
Johnny Herbert: Fundamentally he showed the strength that I think we all wanted to see, coming out the blocks in the first race of the season. It is a very important time, where the championship can be won or lost. He capitalized when they both went off the circuit, obviously Oscar lost a lot of time getting stuck on the grass and eventually finishing ninth.
He didn’t put the foot wrong. He was under pressure with Max. But at the end of the day, he beat Max.
What struck me was how much Lando has matured. In the past he has got high-pitched and very excited. In Melbourne he was very, very calm in that cockpit. And he was calm all over the weekend. That shows maturity over what we saw last year to now. I think it’s a perfect result and perfect timing.
McLaren started as they needed to do, which was to be the strongest and fastest and then actually not throw it away. Lando is showing signs that Max has really got a fight on his hands.
The fastest car on the track is a McLaren
Oscar Piastri’s recovery stopped Max Verstappen from finding another way to beat Lando Norris
Johnny Herbert: It was very important for Oscar, yes, to just get himself back into the race itself. You can’t blame him for going off like he did. It was tough out there and no one knows, until they’ve actually driven one what these cars are like. They are such beastly little things.
We saw even the most experienced man, Alonso, throw it into the wall as well. So, it just shows how difficult it was.
It was very important not to have a safety car because that would have only closed out the pack again and thrown Max back into the mix. From McLaren’s point of view, it wasn’t the perfect one-two that they were expecting, but they showed that they have got the car that they need to be able to capitalise on this early in the season to get as many points as they did.
Although Oscar made that mistake, he got back in and he did get some points. They know that they have the tools to be able to control this championship and eventually dominate it and win both the constructors’ and the drivers’ championship. It was a very strong showing out of the blocks which is exactly what Max did last year.
What do you make of the ‘looming ‘civil war’ at the FIA?
Johnny Herbert: There’s always issues between drivers and the FIA. Senna had it with Jean-Marie Balestre. You saw that in the movie.
Susie Wolff seems to be somebody’s putting herself in that position to challenge for President. But that is nothing new. It’s just part and parcel of the politics of the sport.
If Susie goes for it. I think it’ll be very interesting. It would be nice to see maybe someone like Susie, I like Susie, and how she comes across. She’s got a nice way about her.
What did you make of how Williams performed?
Johnny Herbert: Really good. They’ve got two guys that do seem to be very closely matched.
They will be really happy with Alex’s performance in qualifying and what he did actually in the race.
It was a shame they lost Carlos earlier on, but the speed they showed in testing has actually worked in a race scenario. They’ve got to be very happy with how the drivers have performed and how the car has performed.
They are making really nice progress at the moment. They’ve got two drivers who are able to give them the best possible results which is only going to benefit them down the line with potentially more sponsorship which, in turn, will allow them to have a better chance of getting Williams back to those wonderful winning ways that we saw through the 80s and 90s.
In Sainz we might have a budding team principal with his advice to Albon
Johnny Herbert: All those little things are a good addition to what, you know, what is happening within. There’s a nice vibe within the team, a nice rapport.
That’s just a very important part of a team’s growth. The car seemed to perform as well so that’s a good sign.
What can Aston Martin take from Australia?
Johnny Herbert: If you take their performance in qualifying, it wasn’t really up to the job. They didn’t really show any pace during testing.
They got some good points which was good for Lance. He and Alonso were evenly matched.
The car is not driver friendly and it’s not quick at the present time. They’ve got a good result because of the conditions that were there. They capitalized on that, probably through a little bit of strategy as well. Lance didn’t make any mistakes. Fernando did.
That’s why he was able to get the points that he did. But fundamentally it’s not going to be this year. This is going to be a tough year and of course the focus is not going to be on this year. The focus is on 2026.
