F1: Michael Schumacher prediction made after 'horrible' health update
F1 icon Michael Schumacher remains away from the spotlight after his skiing accident in 2013
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Michael Schumacher's former team-mate Johnny Herbert thinks the 54-year-old would have been a pundit if he hadn't been involved in a tragic skiing accident 10 years ago.
Back in 2013, the German was on holiday in France when he went off course and crashed into a rock.
Schumacher hit his head and was then put in a medically induced coma. It's now been nearly a decade since he was last seen in public.
And Herbert, speaking to Grovesnor Sport, believes the Ferrari icon would have been a pundit if he hadn't sustained such serious injuries.
Johnny Herbert has opened up on former F1 team-mate Michael Schumacher
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"I think Schumacher would have made a good pundit. He would have been outspoken," he stated.
"He was always very aware of what you can and can’t do.
"His character was always in your face, telling you directly if you had done something to him on the track.
"Remember Spa with David Coulthard. He would have been very good."
Recently, Schumacher's close friend Roger Benoit provided an update on the F1 legend.
Benoit said Schumacher was a 'case without hope, implying he won't ever get back to his old self.
And Herbert has branded the update as 'horrible', admitting it's all 'very sad'.
"There’s never any news. What we do know is we never hear any positive news," continued the 59-year-old.
"That’s the horrible thought that he is still not able to be close to the Michael that we all remember.
"And that is very sad."
Benoit also claimed Schumacher should lose his F1 title from 1994, when he beat Damon Hill in controversial circumstances.
He made the comments at a time when Felipe Massa is hoping to secure the 2008 title from Lewis Hamilton.
But Herbert doesn't think that should happen and insists it would damage the integrity of F1 if Schumacher was to be stripped of his maiden crown.
"I think he was just trying to make a point with the ongoing case Felipe Massa has," he continued.
"We could go back over history and say that happened because of this, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna thing in Japan for instance.
"I remember as a driver always worrying that drivers would start one day to sue each other because of a crash or some such incident.
"Thankfully that never happened. Felipe is the first time when someone has gone to get the world title back.
"The sport loses out. You can’t have a retrospective look back for instance if someone had a cold cup of coffee one morning and that gave him an upset stomach and he could race at his best."
Fast-forward to the modern era and Max Verstappen is very much the man to beat.
The 25-year-old recently made history by becoming the first F1 driver to win 10 races in a row.
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Michael Schumacher won seven F1 titles during his time in the sport
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And Herbert thinks Verstappen is already a legend of the sport, despite his young age.
"We are already talking about Max as one of the greats, though," he said. "And I think he is going to go on to win many more championships. You can see just how special he is. There is no argument.
"Is he the best? Well it’s a matter of conjecture. You can’t compare.
"There have been some brilliant drivers. Jim Clark’s stats were unbelievable in a very dangerous era. Sir Stirling Moss said the greatest driver he saw was Fangio.
"But it was a very different world back then with a lot of gentlemen racers. And there hasn't been one of those for a long, long time."
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