Johnny Herbert exclusive: Kimi Antonelli is making the rest of the F1 grid nervous, and that’s what can make him the champion in 2026

Jackpot City was especially excited to speak exclusively to ex-Formula 1 ace Johnny Herbert who told the sport to remember that it’s the drivers that matter and make races special.

The retired Grand Prix winner backed Max Verstappen for speaking out on behalf of drivers and gave his view on the tweaks being made to the new regulations amid a climate of hostility over their effects on the sport.

Herbert has also warned the rest of the grid that they need to act now if they are to stop Kimi Antonelli from racing away with the World Championship this year, especially his Mercedes stablemate George Russell.

As for Lewis Hamilton and his chances of making a comeback in the championship race this season, Herbert offered a reality check on the British driver’s current situation at Ferrari.

Read the full interview below.

Was that one of the better Miami races of recent times? And what did it say about the new regulations?

It was definitely one of the best ones. It seemed to have a little bit of action all the way through from the first lap to Charles having a spin on the last lap and all the mayhem that followed.

We are talking about the rules, we're talking about McLaren's sort of resurgence. But the real story is Antonelli, and it's the way he has been able to grow this season.

He’s been so impressive in what he's been achieving in a very consistent way and that is a very powerful thing for the other drivers to see that.

They should be very worried about him because he's only going to get stronger at that tender age of 19.

Antonelli is 20 points clear of Russell. We can now see what Toto Wolff saw some years ago can’t we?

At the beginning of the season, the only criticism I had of him from last year was consistency.

He seems to have so far turned that around. And that strength, mental strength, is only going to get better, which means these results are going to become easier for him.

He's probably not even going to be thinking about going into a race weekend and how he drives the car, because it will all become automatic for him.

He will have much more capacity than what he had last year. When you've got more capacity, you have a bigger chance of dealing with everything that is going on within the team and within the bubble of Formula 1.

It's mighty impressive what he's doing at the moment. There are probably two things to it that are showing up very strongly in his favour.

Consistency is one thing; but I think it's where his driving has really developed into a situation where mistakes are not coming into play. When you watch him, those mistakes are mighty small.

That’s what we've seen with Max or Lewis or Senna or Schumacher. It was their ability to make only minuscule mistakes.

At 19 years old Antonelli has a wow factor. This young generation of drivers are just so on top of all the technology that is there and then able to deliver the race results that Kimi is doing at the moment.

It’s lovely with his personality which is shining through in a major way.

It’s great for Formula 1 and for race fans alike.

Is he showing world champion credentials then?

Very much so. He's grown into a championship mentality.

Those poles and wins in the first three races have made him the leader of the Mercedes team.

I had expected George to be the one who's going to come out the blocks fast and fighting and controlling it but it's completely switched the other way.

Kimi has this power. George, his teammate and other drivers for instance at McLaren and Red Bull are going to be seeing this strength in front of their eyes.

They will be concerned at how strong this guy is going to become.

This is part of what a driver needs to do. He needs to be able to make the other drivers around him feel nervous and threatened. Kimi is probably doing it.

Because of the results he's getting, that is the vibe that he's sending out there and that vibe is just going to be very powerful for him.

I call it intimidation because everybody's going to be thinking that this guy means business.

If we look at last year with McLaren, Piastri was so quick out of the blocks last year, not dissimilar to what Kimi is doing now. Then Lando reeled him in. Can George do the same and rein him in as the season unfolds?

There's always that chance. Pressure will ramp up on Kimi in a different way.

There is pressure because Toto believes in him and he wants to live up to that expectation.

The next pressure is going to be when you talk about the championship for real.

At the moment it's a long way off. But there will be a point where it comes for real.

If he can sort of push it away and just do what he needs in the cockpit of the car, he'd be absolutely fine. But sometimes we've seen pressure change drivers and force them into making mistakes.

It’s too soon to write off George Russell, isn’t it?

It is. You can't rule out George. George is no fool. George definitely has the pace that he needs to be able to take it to Kimi.

Now he needs mentally to get in a place where he suddenly switches it around and pushes that other pressure, teammate pressure, onto Kimi.

It can still swap around.

He's got to be able to use the negativity that's happening at the moment and switch it around into a positive. And all that means having a smoother weekend where you're out qualifying your teammate.

But Kimi I feel he's only going to get stronger this season. That's my only worry for George.

It must be hard for George because this season was supposed to be his moment? How does he deal with what’s happening mentally?

George did actually take it to Lewis in that season that they had together.

The only way that he's able to jump on top of the situation is by working very hard with his engineer, having the right mental approach.

That has to change. He had the belief that he could beat Kimi. Now it's different. Now he’s having to think, how do I beat Kimi? How is he out-foxing me at the present time?

He's got to go to Canada and basically dig his heels in and really make the point as soon as he possibly can.

He has to start to control his own destiny. I think that's what you've got. That means learning from your teammate but applying it into your car.

At the end of the day, when you're in the cockpit on your own, he has to make every single element of these very complicated cars work for you.

The only person who can do that is George himself.

McLaren are looking sharper. Are they going to be Mercedes' biggest challenger this season?

Yes. What we saw in Miami was that McLaren probably had the faster car. But it didn't quite pan out as a race winning performance.

But the performance itself, especially with Lando winning the sprint race and pushing Kimi all the way to the end in the main race, showed they definitely have a car to be reckoned with.

So the direction of the upgrade that they had in Miami put them in a position where they were the fastest car in the race.

They've got to be able to capitalise on that when they go to Canada. It's a totally different type of circuit with a lot of long straights, hard braking.

McLaren have been historically very good there, so that may be a good sign for them.

It seems like Lando has made that jump in performance to match the car’s improvement.

Drivers sometimes aren't able to follow that upgrade. But he's raised his game. Lando definitely is in a better position. Oscar drove a great race as well , but he wasn't quite as quick as Lando.

Lando could be a big big threat to Kimi because if he starts taking points off of Kimi that only helps George.

Can Lando push on and become a back to back champion?

You definitely can’t write him off yet.

At the end of last season he was mighty strong when it mattered and he did everything he needed to do to win.

Now because of that, and as a world champion, he has the mental capacity now to be able to turn it around in his favour.

He will feel very positive after the show in Miami itself and I'm sure he would take that to Canada.

Canada is a track that actually could benefit Lando more than Kimi or George.

Where does that leave Oscar Piastri then?

With Oscar there's always going to be that frustration when you're being beaten by your teammate.

We don't see him showing his emotion very often. He is able to dig deep. It went a bit pear-shaped last year. He will learn from that. He won't allow that to happen again. He’s learned the how and why it didn't quite come together last season.

He's not far off of Lando so that means he hasn't got that much work to do before he gets in front of him.

But again, Lando just seems to have the ability to get the very best out of the car without making any silly mistakes.

That's going to be the strength that Lando is going to be taking forward.

Oscar, a bit like George, is going to get his heels dug in and work out the why and how.

And because it's not going to be simple, because Lando can definitely push the boundaries further than he has ever done before, just because of the experience that he had last year.

He was able to overhaul Oscar, put him under pressure and then eventually get that championship done.

Max looked quick again in Miami. He had a better weekend, didn't he? Is his focus now solely on his driving?

That's Max, that's what Max does, that's just how he ticks!

He wasn't happy because the performance of  the car wasn't very strong and he was not in a position realistically to fight for the front row.

But he had a car that he was able to dig out a great lap in qualifying. And in the race itself, it wasn't probably the strongest we'd ever seen from Max.

But it was much better. The upgrades that Red Bull brought really elevated their performance. Have they been able to jump McLaren and Mercedes? No, obviously not.

But they did put themselves in a much, much better position. So we're just going to have to see once again what they can supply Max to be able to allow him to fight for those race wins.

They are still a long way off.

Everybody says Max is the one who will get that extra two or three tenths of a second out of the car. But that isn't enough.

It shows once again that you can be as good as Max but you can never out drive the performance of the car.

The car will only give you what it's able to do and at the present time it's not able to give him what he wants and what he needs to beat the other two teams.

He's more of an outsider now for the championship because he's just not really got the car underneath him to be able to do that.

More generally, Max isn't going to walk away is he, despite what he has been saying?

There was a lot of stoking it up on Max’s part.

When he said he was going to reflect on what he was going to do, that was within F1 not outside it in my opinion.

You're never going to walk away from this sport because they are still the very best race cars out there. It's still probably the biggest thrill you're going to get out of driving.

We're getting much closer to having a normal race car, which means Max will be in a better mindset because he'll be feeling with at least, they're changing it at least they're making it better and at least they're making it more exciting.

And if they make it more exciting, he’ll be thinking, ‘I won't be going anywhere.’

I hope he doesn't!

He’s playing a game and I totally understand that. He’s playing with the teams, playing with Formula 1, the FIA saying I'm leaving because the cars are not what I want the cars to be.

That’s why it's important if someone like Lewis or Max was on a committee being part of the decision-making process, I think the drivers would have a very positive impact on what happens down the line.

Max and all the drivers want a car that tests them. Cars at the moment don’t test them and that’s why they are frustrated.

Did the ‘tweaks’ make a difference?

It was much better to watch. The deployment was much better because we didn't hear anywhere near as much about the slowing up down the straights. It was still there but it was much gentler.

Because of that it actually made the race interesting,

I know issues are still there, I know the drivers are still not 100 % happy about it, I know there are still discussions going on about how they change it further down the line.

Everybody's aware that those tweaks worked in Miami and I think there's probably another step or two before we probably get to a point where it's acceptable for everybody.

The fundamental thing is I am closer to almost accepting it because the entertainment factor actually does seem to work at the moment.

It just needs a little more tinkering just to make it better for the drivers to be able to drive flat out all the way through right rather than the algorithms and the AI software coming in.

Max Verstappen has led the chorus of disapproval and Juan Pablo Montoya has called for him to be punished and banned for a race if he carries on. What’s your take?

I get it. Sometimes the drivers have just got to get on with it and do the job that they're employed to do.

Through the years that I've been involved with Formula 1 there's been many rule changes; some have been good, some have been not so good.

It's still not that flat out racing that I think everybody expects.

But at least the drivers were being really tested in Miami because they were having to think for themselves.

They’re not having to think as much as they used to have to because of the technology.

I get Juan’s point, but I’m glad Max has been highlighting the issues because I think it's important that drivers do have a say. Even Lewis Hamilton has said that the drivers need to have a space in talks with the teams and the FIA.

It should be part of the modern thinking from FIA, from the teams to have an input from the drivers as well. The drivers ultimately are the ones who have the final say.

When Max does come out, and it wasn't just Max, we had Lando and Fernando saying things too, they tried to push it aside and almost told ‘Enough is enough.’

But sometimes you do need them to stand up and say it's wrong. Because it was wrong.

But the issues were only being raised by the drivers. I think he should do what he's done. But now he should sort of say, right, I've done my bit.

But if it doesn't change, they just need to remind everybody that the driving is still the most important thing. When the race fan goes through a race weekend, they're 99 % cheering for the drivers. The drivers are very important.

They're the gladiators. If they're a gladiator, they need to be tested like a gladiator.

Drivers should be the ones who should have a voice.

It is very important what the drivers think and say what it's not just about and I know Nicholas Tombazis said F1 shouldn't be held to ransom by the teams.

In many respects that is true because you don't always want to steer the sport in a direction that the teams want.

You want to steer it in a direction that is going to be better for Formula 1, better for the drivers and fundamentally better for the fans watching it.

We should not forget that the race fan is the one who wants to be wowed by these drivers on the racetrack.

What do you read then in statements from Mohammed Ben Sulayem that V8s will be back by 2030 or 2031 at the latest regardless of what manufacturers like Audi and Cadillac think?

There are a lot of people that would agree and want that. The combustion engine has a very long life ahead of it for that technology to advance and be even more efficient than they are today. The noise will come back.

I'm not saying get rid of electrification at all, but I think the focus should be on, I think the combustion engine. F1 is very good at making things more efficient, better and faster.

 I think everybody would have that super wow factor with the sound that comes with a V8.

Formula 1 will only benefit from that and if Formula 1 benefits from that the fans definitely benefit but most of all it's the drivers who will.

Ferrari are proving once again how frustrating they can be aren’t they? All the pre-season optimism hasn’t amounted to much has it?

At the beginning of the season, they looked strong. There have been occasions that they look strong at the beginning of a weekend.

They showed their cards a little bit earlier than everybody else; but other teams have been able to turn it all up and basically Ferrari aren’t a worry for the other teams.

It's just one of those frustrating situations. They haven’t been able to take two jumps forward and harness that performance that everybody else is able to.

Again, it shows that the ingredients needed from the engineering isn't quite on the same level as it is with other teams especially like McLaren. They're the ones that just seem to be able to always improve on what they started with.

Ferrari is a much slower development. They're always sort of on that back foot, they're never able to get on the front foot.

So, Lewis can kiss goodbye to an 8th title at least this year?

Yes. It’s another year when it isn’t quite going to happen for him.

But the thing is you never know. There is going to be a point when Ferrari is going to get it right.

What they need to do is to make sure when top talent becomes available, Ferrari needs to be there, banging on the door, ready, at the front of the queue to get them into your team.

At the moment they're not quite able to do that.

There were positive signs from Williams in Miami. Have they turned a corner?

I think it is. Starting as they did with such a heavy car, it takes a lot of time and effort just to slim the car down without then focusing on what you need to focus on which is the pure performance.

By achieving what they have so far with the reduction in weight, and they've shed quite a good few kilos, the car's performance has gone in a window where now they're able to get into the top 10 and get points.

It's a good sign. Williams are probably starting their season now. They're always behind, but it's how much more development they're going to be able to achieve in the next couple of races because everybody else is going to be improving.

Williams are fighting themselves internally and they’ve also got to fight the other teams on the grid.

What about Aston Martin? They're at least able to complete races now.

They're going to improve because they were just so bad!

You would expect Honda to be able to come out and produce some form of power unit with all the battery technology to give them a chance. But it's hard when all the others seem to be happier with what they have.

Honda still don't understand what they've got or what they've got coming. So, there's still a lot of learning.

Honda has got to do three or four jumps in performance to get that car in a situation of going for points. It’s far from easy.

Have they got the time this season to turn it around?  I would probably say no they haven't.

They will learn a lot from this year. Maybe they're going to be stronger next year but for this year I think it's going to be tougher.

Fernando's not going to go anywhere, is he?

At this point, why would you want to really change him?

His input is obviously very important. I'm sure he pushes massively behind the scenes and that's the type of character that you want. I don't think they need to change for a younger upcoming star yet because they need that experience to help Honda, and to help the whole Aston project move forward.

Talk us through Canada and how you rate that track. Who will it favour and what do you expect to see?

It's a great track, one where downforce is not particularly high because of those straights.

It gets very light when you're under-braking, so you need a good balanced car, and one that is also very responsive on the front end to go through all the chicanes at the end of those straights.

It's going to be an advantage, I think, for the most efficient cars and at the moment the two cars that definitely stand out are the Mercedes and the McLaren.

Red Bull will probably be there or thereabouts because that's the type of track that would benefit Max because I think he can always get the best out of a car. Max will probably be in the mix. I don't think he'll be in the mix when it comes down to the race but I think he definitely will be when it comes down to qualifying.

What’s your podium?

I'm going to throw the two McLarens onto the podium. I don't know exactly where, and also Kimi again because of the roll that he's on.

This also has to be the time George takes the podium away from Kimi as well.

I would not be surprised if George is able to force his teammate off of the podium and put himself in that strong position going forward.

Finally, MBS has been saying he doesn't agree with multi-team ownership. What does that mean for Red Bull and Racing Bulls and Mercedes coveting Alpine?

There’s a plus and a minus. It's great that there are those teams that can have a second team because it just adds to how many cars we have on the grid itself.

If we lost Alpine because Mercedes don't take it over, or you don't have RB, then you have four cars less on the grid, unless you've got some queue of people looking to get into the sport.

I like it that drivers have another opportunity to get into a car. I'm so happy that Red Bull can use that second team to bring on new drivers who sometimes make the main team.

I would rather see teams with two teams because at least it gives those drivers a chance.