“It took me a while to adapt to the team and car, but once we had the electronic differential from Austria, it sort of clicked together a little bit better.”
The points still didn’t come though – until a classic case of driving talent, strategic nous, erratic weather and a little bit of luck all combined for Herbert and Stewart at the third-to-last race of the season for the European GP.
“I was sitting on the grid, and was watching this huge cloud coming over from Spa,” says Herbert.
“It didn’t deviate in direction or shape, and was very broad.”
As one of F1’s most chaotic GPs ever got underway, the ominous cloud inched nearer.
After a false start, a barrel-roll for Sauber’s Pedro Diniz, electrical failures for both Jordans, David Coulthard throwing it off the road and various pit-stop bungles for title contenders Mika Häkkinen and Eddie Irvine, Herbert was quietly slipping up the order.
He then made the right decision at the right time.
“The cloud just kept coming and coming and fortunately, they called me in and as it began to rain at the bottom end of the hairpin,” remembers Herbert
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s just gonna cover the whole track. This is an opportunity because this is going to be a lot of rain.’