14 May 2023 , 06:00
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Johnny Herbert felt the "typical cocky" comment made by Christian Horner after the Miami Grand Prix was exactly the sort of thing Toto Wolff used to say when Mercedes were dominating the Formula 1 world.
Max Verstappen raced from ninth on the grid to win the Florida race ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez. The result meant Red Bull kept their 100% winning record so far in 2023 with their fourth one-two finish out of the first five races.
After the Miami race, team principal Horner crowed about how easy Red Bull were having it. "Five races, five wins plus the sprint, and four one-two finishes – we've never had a start like this and we're kind of wondering, 'Where are the others?'," he said in his Sky Sports interview.
That line did not go unnoticed by Herbert and Billy Monger, who discussed it on their Lift the Lid podcast. When asked for his thoughts about Horner's words by his co-host, former Sky pundit Herbert was quick to say he had heard it all before.
"I remember Toto Wolff saying exactly the same thing when they were having their domination period so it's a typical cocky comment, I suppose." said the 58-year-old. "You know you've got a good car and you know no-one else has got a chance of beating you.
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"And, actually, both of them were right when they mentioned those similar things. Where is everybody else? They're right because you would expect – like the updates that came for Ferrari – you expected them to do something.
Johnny Herbert said Horner was right to be wondering where Red Bull's competition has gone (Photo by Qian Jun/MB Media/Getty Images)"But they didn't do anything and the race pace again was lousy. Really, really poor. So there's a lot of head-scratching going on and I think there's some head scratching from Christian as well. 'Why aren't the other teams able to challenge us?' We're a few races into the season, but nobody has closed the gap."
And, in reply, Monger added: "He's going to be loving every second of this, sat there going, 'Where's our competition at?' These are the years in Formula 1 which a team principal hopes will come around – the years where you're in a league of your own with no-one to fight with. You're just turning up and winning Grands Prix.
"Christian is going, 'I wonder where we're going to finish this weekend, let me have a guess'. That is a stress-free Christian Horner we've got this season."