LOUD, LIKEABLE, SMART: HERBERT’S MEMORIES
“JEFF WAS SUCH A LIKEABLE MAN.
YOU JUST KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO
HAVE FUN WITH HIM”
Johnny Herbert raced in Japan in 1990 and 1991, and over those two seasons he got to know Jeff Krosnoff – a fellow practical joker – very well.
“The main thing about Jeff was he was loud like an American,” Herbert recalls. “And that loudness was something that really, really sort of drew you into Jeff, because he was such a likeable man. You just knew you were gonna have fun with him. And fun, I think, was a very big part of what Jeff was all about. He was much closer to Mauro, obviously – they were sort of together twentyfour-seven. But it was lovely, my relationship that I had with him.
“His smartness was something that did come out. He was one of those who could have fun, but as soon as it came down to a race weekend, the real sort of concentration on his face was something that you could see from afar. I think he put all his efforts into trying to make things work out for him. And give him his due, they did. He earned a good reputation in Japan. He was always able to get the best out of himself and out of the car package that he had around him. He had to learn much quicker than we did, because we’d already experienced a lot of this set-up work and how to work with a team in Europe, and it was something very new to him. But he had that desire to do it.
“And of course then he got that chance in America, and he was doing well. And it was so nice seeing him achieve what he was achieving in CART. And then came the horrible crash that took him away from all of us, which was really sad, because he just had such a massive passion.
“I remember going to the funeral with Heinz-harald Frentzen, and you could see it from the family how hard it hit. But I’ve got the good memories. He was just a nice bubbly character.”