Eddie Irvine, who failed to win the F1 driver’s championship for Ferrari in 1999, has slammed former team-mate Michael Schumacher as “the most boring world champion ever”.
Eddie Irvine, who failed to win the F1 driver’s championship for Ferrari in 1999, has slammed former team-mate Michael Schumacher as “the most boring world champion ever”.
Irvine told that the seven-time world champion’s reign as the king of F1 was coming to an end and that current championship leader Fernando Alonso would take up the German’s mantle.
“The guy’s awesome (Alonso). When the pressure’s on, he doesn’t seem to make mistakes like Michael does. He’s the new king,” Irvine said. “(McLaren-Mercedes driver) Kimi Raikkonen’s up there as well. The guard is changing, and I think it’s about time because Michael is the most boring world champion ever.”
While Alonso has amassed an 18-point championship lead with three wins in five races, Schumacher has failed to finish three times to leave him 34 points behind the Spaniard.
The only time Schumacher has seriously troubled Alonso was at the San Marino Grand Prix. But Irvine said the 36-year-old champion’s failure to attempt an aggressive overtaking move on Alonso in the closing stages at Imola was a sign of the times.
“All he had to do was put the car down the inside and say ‘we either have an accident or you finish second’,” said Irvine, who was Schumacher’s Ferrari team-mate from 1996 to 1999.
“There was no point in Michael finishing second to Alonso. He’s done much more bad things than that. Maybe age is getting to him. Three years ago he would have done that,” he added.
