'Michael retiring was the best thing that could have happened for Formula 1'
People have asked me if the departure of Michael is a good thing or a bad thing and I think that Michael retiring was the best thing that could have happened for Formula 1. To move Kimi into Ferrari, he'll hopefully set a different example to all this being married, clean living, staying at home nonsense. That has nothing to do with being a good racing driver.
He's a madman but I want my Formula 1 drivers to be heroes and personalities and not just good racing drivers. He's a personality in a way because he doesn't have a personality. His personality only comes out when he drinks vodka and he's limited in what he says but you can never take away the fact that the drives the car is fantastic.
With the new Ferrari line-up, I can't see there being a team order because Jean Todt manages Massa. Kimi for sure will be the favourite of the team I think because he has star quality. I like Massa a lot but I'm not so sure about the nepotism of the Todt situation and I think Kimi's a special talent. And I hope he wins because he enjoys a good drink and a pretty girl - Formula 1 needs a few playboys back.
'I hope Kimi wins it'
People have said Michael was the test driver, Michael did this, Michael did that. That's a load of bo***cks. Michael was an exceptional racing driver, simple as that. End of story, end of book. I did all the tyre development and chassis development at Ferrari and he did the engine stuff. It was the same when Rubens was there. Rubens was a much better test driver than Michael was. Michael could drive a car unbelievably well. People should not try add all this other bulls**t about him being super human being. He's not. He could drive a racing car. As far as I know, I don’t think Michael has too much involvement in the team any more, except in terms of PR.
Flavio Briatore said some pretty disparaging things about Kovalainen after the race but I don't think that matters. If Flavio says things like that and it upsets you then you shouldn't be in Formula 1. He got into Formula 1 because he beat Michael Schumacher in the Race of Champions so it's too early to say how good he will be.
Malaysia's up next and it's a race I won in 1999. Physically it's the most demanding race of the year and I can imagine Hamilton is going to struggle there due to his lack of race fitness. He's probably trained for it and done everything he can but the heat there is amazing and you need to have experienced those extremes over and over again. That said, I'm looking forward to qualifying.
Sepang is a very tricky circuit. There's hardly an easy corner on it. In my opinion it's one of the hardest circuits in Formula 1. A lot of the apexes are blind and a lot of the corners tighten up on the exit but it's probably the third most fun circuit to drive on after Monaco and Suzuka for me.
I'd have to go with Ferrari and McLaren in Malaysia again although I think BMW Sauber could do something. It's very hard to say with these fly-aways and I don't think they're a true gauge of form and they can throw up weird results. It's not until we get back to Europe that we'll really be able to tell.
Speak to you after Malaysia,
Eddie Irvine.
20th March 2007
