Johnny Herbert wants some more respect put on his name – and even people racing him today are in no doubt of his quality.

The three-time Formula One race winner lapped just 1.058 seconds adrift of Lando Norris at Buckmore Park Kart Circuit at 60 years old.

Herbert (left) was teammates with Schumacher (middle) for two seasonsSutton Images

Herbert retired from competitive racing 24 years ago – a number that is 12 shy of the age gap between him and McLaren star Norris.

That’s not why he’s so impressive.

It also wasn’t that Norris had completed his lap ahead of a 2023 season in which he got 205 points in the world championship.

Nor too that the 24-year-old, who was returning to Buckmore Park where he had one of his first-ever kart races in 2008, was afforded a clean track to pump in a personal best while Herbert manoeuvred between nine crash-happy novices in his second karting session of the day.

Instead, it was a comment the veteran made to me while I waited for numb fingers to unclench and type in my phone’s passcode to order an Uber home – so that someone else could do the driving.

Herbert has raced some of the greatest F1 stars of all time, and even Prince Harry at the same Chatham circuit (which is now my third link to the Duke of Sussex after a shared love of TV show Suits and the fact red hair runs in the family).

But amid all those high-profile stars, his overtake on a man without a license was bothering him. Not because of the ease of it. Not because I was as late on the brakes as Lewis Hamilton without any of the Mercedes star’s ability.

Herbert didn’t even skip a beat at the prospect of our cars colliding at the hairpin and sending us both to the medical facility. In fact, that we didn’t crash was almost what annoyed him.

Once I’d processed that Michael Schumacher‘s former teammate had divebombed the inside of the circuit’s first hairpin, I instinctively swerved.

Upon hearing my reasoning why, Herbert issued a booming laugh and said: “Never do that… Michael wouldn’t have done that, Max [Verstappen] wouldn’t have done that!”

Prince William received a trophy from Herbert, watched by his mother, The Princess of Wales (black jacket) at Buckmore ParkPA:Press Association

His most recent visit to the Kent circuit saw him sit down with the Prince of talkSPORTSupplied

It’s obvious from that small anecdote that Herbert is a character – something a driver needs to reach the pinnacle of motorsport.

It’s also a personality trait the Brit is accustomed to dealing with.

Herbert was teammates with Schumacher for the first two of his seven world titles at Benetton in 1994 and 1995.

He was also on the FIA stewarding panel which decided to hand Verstappen his community-service punishment for swearing.

During an exclusive interview with talkSPORT, Herbert, short of further admonishing Red Bull’s three-time world champion, explained: “Characters are very important in all sports.

“They’re definitely important in Formula 1. And I have to say, I think we’ve got a good bunch, actually, who’ve got a nice sense of humour.

“They seem to be quite a close group of drivers, which I haven’t seen this close for quite a long time, to be honest, but the rebellious streak, I think, has always been part of it. When you see Ayrton [Senna] and [former FIA President Jean-Marie] Baleste in the ‘Senna’ film’, you see it in the movie once, but it happened every single race weekend that we had.

“So those characters have always been there. Michael [Schumacher] another character, Mika [Hakkinen] as well, Sebastian [Vettel], the list goes on.”

The Princess of Wales, Princess Diana, took her sons Prince William and Prince Harry to Buckmore Park in 1992Getty

Four years later at the same venue a young Lewis Hamilton put himself on a path to superstardom

Herbert is a name often unfairly omitted from that list – despite needing more character than all of the above just to still get in a kart.

In August 1988, he was on the cusp of a breakout F1 career when he stood in for Team Lotus’ regular drivers during tyre testing at Monza and immediately outpaced the reigning World Champion, Nelson Piquet.

Later that same month, Herbert suffered a life-altering collision that left him admitting to talkSPORT he’s still ‘stiff and painful’ from nearly four decades later.

His feet and ankles were smashed while competing in International Formula 3000 at Brands Hatch, with doctors saying he would never walk again.

In his F1 Racing column in 1998, Herbert said: “I remember lying in intensive care while all the doctors were debating what to do with me. What I didn’t know was that they were all convinced of one thing: my driving career was over.

“Initially it was a question of which bits they might cut off. Then when they realised what I did for a living, it was more a case of how they would try to fix the mess, and whether I’d ever walk again. I was ignorant of all this, but my parents and Becky, my wife, had to bear all of it.”

Herbert miraculously recovered from his crash in 1988YouTube

He finished fourth in the 1995 standings which was won by his teammate SchumacherGetty

Herbert could have been left in a wheelchair for life.

Instead, less than seven months later, he’d finished fourth on his F1 debut behind winner and world champion Nigel Mansell, four-time world champion Alain Prost, and local hero Mo Gugelmin.

Crucially, he outperformed teammate Alessandro Nannini, whose 7.7-second deficit in sixth position was a larger time gap than Herbert could clock over this reporter at Buckmore Park.

Within three years of battling his injuries, he overtook Schumacher to deliver Mazda’s only triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Herbert achieved all this AFTER his accident

Such were the demands he put on his body that Herbert famously missed the podium after being rushed to hospital due to pulling a double stint and later collapsing as he crossed the finish line.

The rest of the 90s saw Herbert separately partner two of the biggest F1 rivals of all time in Schumacher and Haikennen.

That golden era of motorsport included starring feats from Senna, Mansell, Prost, Hill, and Villeneuve but amid all that were three Grands Prix victories for Herbert.

That is as many as Norris and Ferrari‘s Carlos Sainz, and one more than Hamilton teammate George Russell and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Herbert has interviewed all of those names during his post-competitive race career as a former Sky F1 Expert Analyst.

His frequent returns to the grid reunite him with drivers of his era, but whether it’s past or present, few understand his lingering pain.

Herbert exclusively told talkSPORT: “Everything I went through with my accident, I think it’s something that gets very forgotten, of the seriousness of the accident at that time, and actually having the success that I had when I got into Formula One, do I feel sometimes that I’m not given enough credit? Sometimes yes, I must be honest.

“But I think that’s just because people are not very aware of what damage I have. You know, you see me walk around now and I’m sort of quite stiff, and it’s quite painful when I do it now, when I see all my other fellow drivers, none of them have got any pain like I had.

“So it would be nice for people to [recognise] – Some do…”

Verstappen’s father was swapped for Herbert for the final two races of the 94 seasonGetty Images

Brit legends Herbert and Hamilton followed similar pathways from karting to F1…to scootersGetty

One who does is seven-time world champion Hamilton, who Herbert fittingly pays tribute to as we sit down to chat at Buckmore Park.

It was at the iconic karting circuit in Kent where F1’s GOAT’s rise through the racing ranks began, having caught the eye of McLaren boss Ron Dennis during the televised Champions of the Future event held in 1996.

Another is Verstappen, whose father Jos was replaced as Schumacher’s teammate at Benetton by Herbert two years prior.

Herbert added: “I have to say, someone like Lewis, for example, I think Max [Verstappen] as well, they realize what happened to me, and it’s something that, you know, it’s nice.

“It’s nice for people to be aware of what happened to me.”

I made the cardinal sin of forgetting how ruthless F1 Grand Prix winners areSupplied

My act of penance was to avoid posing for pictures on the top step of the podiumSupplied

It was something I thought I was also aware of when, after our chat, filled with humour and nostalgia, there remained a man hunched over and limping towards his kart ready to watch the red lights turn green for the umpteenth time in his life.

That is the reason was why two corners later, having found myself ahead of Herbert, I finally understood Peter Crouch’s go-kart dilemma when sandwiched between Xabi Alonso and Dirk Kuyt days before Liverpool‘s Champions League final against AC Milan.

Like former England striker Crouch, I deliberately avoided contact with the star of the track and gave myself whiplash by ploughing into an NPC alongside me.

But that separates the best – it’s not what Schumacher would have done, and it certainly wasn’t what Herbert considers real racing, whatever his condition is.

“Would I have been world champion without the accident?” Herbert mused to me. “I believe I could have been… but I’m not!”

This interview with Johnny Herbert was conducted via Genting Casino where fans have the chance to win a VIP experience for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Please click here for more details.