Herbert worried McLaren and Norris "haven't capitalised" unlike Verstappen and Schumacher

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert believes that McLaren "have not capitalised" on their early season pace as much as they should have.

After three Grand Prix weekends, the Brit is surprised that both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are not further ahead of Max Verstappen in the battle for the world championship due to the pace and strength of the papaya-coloured car.

After Norris's dominant win at the Australian Grand Prix, Piastri took victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, with points being taken off each other. Then, at the Japanese Grand Prix, a stunning weekend from Verstappen meant he closed the gap between himself and Norris to just one point.

McLaren have not "benefited" from their pace

According to Herbert, McLaren's failure to have a more significant margin over Verstappen with a faster car could harm their championship chances. "In some ways, yes. Because, like last year with Max, and like Michael Schumacher in his heyday, they always won the championship by their early-season form, and everybody else played catch-up. We're a few races in, and Norris is only one point ahead, so they haven’t capitalised as much as they should have done," he said while speaking to a betting site.

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Before the season, Herbert said that Lando Norris was the favorite for the drivers' title. However, Verstappen's fine win at Suzuka has put him right back in the mix: "I've never ruled him out, you can't rule him out. And Red Bull are not far off and haven't been far off so far this season. It's just, it's just McLaren slightly got that edge," the former F1 steward continued.

However, there is no writing off of McLaren either, believing that they will achieve more success throughout the long F1 season, despite some challenges along the way: "I would argue they probably have the better package because the McLaren does seem to work absolutely everywhere," Herbert concluded.

This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen