Johnny Herbert has confirmed he will continue his role as an FIA steward during the 2025 Formula 1 season. Four stewards are appointed for each race of the World Championship, with several people retained by the FIA to do the job. They rotate and tend to do several races per year, with Herbert one of the quartet kicking off the new campaign in Melbourne in March.
Herbert still also works as a pundit and regularly gives his opinions to various websites. And it was through that work that last year he earned the ire of Max Verstappen fans after his criticism of the Red Bull driver. Some suggested it was a conflict of interest for a steward to also be sharing such strong opinions on the sport he is in charge of policing. But Herbert dismissed that notion and insists his punditry work is entirely separate to his obligations when on duty with the FIA.
Looking ahead to his work in Melbourne, he told Casinoutanspelpaus.io: "From a stewarding point of view, I don't expect anything in Australia. It all happens in the moment. There are still going to be incidents, there are still going to be complaints from teams and drivers and we're going to have to deal with that as normal.
"The way that the racing rules have gone, it's made it more as racing was when we were doing karting. I know George Russell mentioned that, it was crazy, this apex stuff and now we've given space on the exits. We never did that in karting, that was never part of it. And I never accepted this giving space.
"You have to take the space, that space is for you so you take it and if the other driver is not quite there then he backs out, that's racing. It's not a rule that says, 'Oh no, you can't do that', you've got to earn it. The difference we have from last year to this year with the racing is the racing rules.".
