Johnny Herbert snubbed Lewis Hamilton when naming his ‘Mount Rushmore’ of F1 drivers

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Lewis Hamilton is statistically the most successful Formula 1 driver of all time with seven world championships and 105 victories. But there was no place for the legendary Briton when Johnny Herbert named his ‘Mount Rushmore’.

Herbert started 160 F1 races between 1989 and 2000, winning three of them. He witnessed Hamilton’s pomp up close as a pundit for UK broadcaster Sky Sports.

When asked the same question, Herbert’s former colleague Martin Brundle selected Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Jim Clark.

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Effectively, the pundits were naming the four greatest drivers of all time.

Johnny Herbert left Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher off his F1 Mount Rushmore

Herbert only agreed with one of Brundle’s choices – Clark. The two-time world champion won more than a third of his races (25 out of 72) before a fatal accident at the age of 32.

Stirling Moss is regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers never to win the title, having finished as the runner-up to the mighty Juan Manuel Fangio three times in the 1950s. Moss also makes Herbert’s list.

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The last two spots went to Niki Lauda, who returned from a life-threatening crash to win a third world title in 1984, and Ayrton Senna, another who lost his life while racing.

Schumacher, Hamilton’s fellow seven-time champion, is also a notable omission, particularly because he was Herbert’s teammate at Benetton in 1994 and ’95.

Herbert told DRIVER: “Jimmy Clark. I’m going to throw Stirling in there. Then I’ve got to throw Niki Lauda in there for everything that he went through. Ayrton Senna.”

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During the interview, Herbert was also asked to name the ‘most underrated’ driver he came up against, but he didn’t pick one of his Formula 1 opponents.

Instead, he went for Tom Kristensen, a record-breaking nine-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours. He also won titles in German and Japanese F3.

The Dane tested for Tyrrell, Minardi and Williams but never received the kind of F1 offer he wanted.

“The guy that should have been given a chance – unfortunately, he smashed me and many other drivers at Le Mans many times – is Tom Kristensen,” said Herbert.