Herbert Turned Down Williams Offer

Jaguar driver Johnny Herbert confirmed on Friday that he turned down an offer to become Williams' test driver next season.

The 36 year-old Briton, who will take part in his 160th and final Grand Prix in Malaysia next Sunday, said he preferred to take on a new challenge in the American CART series, despite an offer from Frank Williams to stay in Formula One.

"Frank had a little chat with me about a test," he said, "but I don't think it is something that I really want to do. I know it would be helping the team, but it wouldn't be something for me to aim at.

"Also, the way that Formula One is, even if I did very well at Williams and blew both drivers away, I don't think I'd end up at Ferrari or McLaren anyway, so I don't see what it would give me - not satisfaction."

In an exclusive interview with Atlas F1, Herbert confirmed that his aim now was to win the CART title, as well as the Indianapolis 500.

"I think that I can go to ChampCars and race in the Indy 500, which is one of the races that I have always wanted to do when I was younger, and be competitive," Herbert said.

"It would be nice winning those and looking back and saying 'well I have won Le Mans, had a good career in F1 and won Champ Cars and the Indy 500'. Then I would have achieved probably two of my goals. Two out of three is not bad."

The British driver, who began his Formula One career back in 1989 with the Benetton team, said that he would only go to ChampCars if he got a good seat, adding that "I am 95 per cent certain that I will go, though."