Johnny Herbert
Johnny Herbert's F1 career very nearly never happened at all — a horrific Formula 3000 crash in 1988 left both his legs and ankles severely damaged, with doctors initially uncertain he'd walk normally again. He raced in F1 within a year regardless, won three grands prix over the following decade, and along the way won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright in one of the most unusual cars ever to win it.
Johnny Herbert's career very nearly ended before it properly began. A violent Formula 3000 crash at Brands Hatch in 1988 left both his legs and ankles severely damaged, and doctors initially doubted he would walk normally again. He made his Formula 1 debut with Benetton less than a year later, still not fully recovered, and went on to have a decade-long F1 career that included three grand prix victories with Benetton, Sauber, and Stewart.
Away from F1, Herbert achieved one of sportscar racing's more unusual milestones: winning the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans outright in a Mazda 787B, a car powered by a rotary engine rather than a conventional piston engine — still, decades later, the only rotary-engined car ever to win the race overall. It remains one of the more distinctive results in Le Mans history.
Since retiring from full-time racing in 2000, Herbert has built a long-running career as a television pundit, primarily with Sky Sports' Formula 1 coverage in the UK, while continuing to compete occasionally in historic motorsport events. Given the severity of the injuries he raced through from 1989 onward, his career is often cited as one of the sport's more understated stories of resilience.
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In a 1988 Formula 3000 race at Brands Hatch, Herbert was involved in a violent crash that crushed and severely damaged both his legs and ankles. The injuries were serious enough that doctors were unsure he would ever walk normally again, let alone return to competitive racing. He raced in Formula 1 for the first time less than a year later, still not fully recovered, in a remarkable display of both recovery and willpower.
Herbert won the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans outright driving a Mazda 787B, a car powered by an unconventional rotary engine rather than the piston engines used by every other competitive entry. It remains, to date, the only overall Le Mans victory ever achieved by a car with a rotary engine — a genuinely unique result in the race's long history, and one Herbert has said he was too physically exhausted at the finish to fully appreciate at the time.
After retiring from racing in 2000, Herbert built an extensive broadcasting career, working for many years as an analyst and pundit on Sky Sports' Formula 1 coverage in the UK, drawing on his own experience as a grand prix winner and one of the sport's most durable survivors of serious injury.
Herbert remained active in competitive driving well beyond his F1 retirement, taking part in historic racing events and other one-off competitive drives, a reflection of a genuine, lifelong enthusiasm for racing rather than a career pursued purely for results or income.
Herbert's three F1 victories — for Benetton, Sauber, and Stewart across the 1990s — all came in cars that weren't among the fastest on the grid for most of a given season, meaning each win required a mix of reliability, opportunism, and races where faster rivals faltered. Given the severity of his 1988 injuries, simply having the career he did is often considered as remarkable as any individual result.