'I think Lewis did an amazing job'
Sod's law! There I was on my sofa, ready to watch the start of the race at my house in the US when the power went down. I had to jump on my motor bike and burn it over to my friend's house so I only missed the start!
Firstly - for Lewis to have qualified on row two and to get ahead of Alonso in the race and stay ahead of him for a long period was extremely impressive for a debut in F1. Obviously Alonso had an extra lap of fuel on board bit but it was still an amazing job. I watched his qualifying lap and he seemed very in control and totally professional.
Impressed as I was, I knew he had the ability to do that. He's won everything on his way up to Formula 1, has been moulded to do a job at the highest level and is in the right team to do well. If you've got the talent, the rest is easy.
I can remember my first grand prix for Jordan thinking 'I don't really care', not because I didn't want to do a good job but because I wasn't thinking I'd be in the team the following year. It was basically have two races at the end of the year, have a laugh and go back to Japan again so I didn't feel under any particular pressure to perform.
'Lewis has talent'
In a different way, I don't think there's much pressure on Lewis. He's got a year's contract, he's with a great team and he has a great car so if you know you have the talent, the pressure's negligible. Despite finishing second and third, McLaren are still a long way from Ferrari on the basis of Melbourne. If you look at the lap times and his fastest lap, you know that Kimi was cruising for most of the race.
It was a frustrating race for the rest of the Brits and Jenson had a nightmare Honda with major understeer. I never understand how Jenson and his management get into these situations. He's obviously a very good driver but the whole thing about being a good driver is getting yourself into a proper car in the first place. Why he's taken on such wild cars seems bizarre. You want to be getting into Ferraris and McLarens and Renaults and my worry about Jenson is that he's taken too long to get going. I don't see him ever being World Champion. He had momentum at one stage but him and his management have made some stupid decisions. He's a young guy so you can't totally blame him but the buck stops at the top and he calls the shots and I don't see him having the power to get into a top team with so much young talent about. I think Kubica looks fantastic and I think it's the best pool of talent there's ever been in the history of Formula 1.
I know DC apologised to Alexander Wurz after their crash but I really don't think it was his fault. He made 100% effort to get through and Wurz had the option of saying, 'let's have an accident' or to let him through and continue the race. DC was alongside him and although he was possibly going a bit too fast for the corner, he was committed and Wurz had the choice. He chose to have an accident and if I was DC I wouldn't be very happy about it.
Anthony Davidson should be fairly happy with his 11th on the grid. He's probably done as many seasons in grand prix cars as anybody on the grid, if not more miles because of the amount of testing he's done and he was unlucky to get shunted at the start.
Have your say on Eddie's column
20th March 2007
