It is always refreshing when a driver from the past emerges with soundbites that kick the hornet's nest, Jacques Villeneuve does it on a regular basis but not so Eddie Irvine who made a welcome 'comeback' and was firing on all cylinders in a recent BBC interview.
Irvine had a successful Formula 1 career in which he drove for Jordan, Ferrari and Jaguar, becoming very rich in the process and apparently he is even richer now, but admits he is no fan of the current era of the sport.
With no apparent axe to grind or hidden agenda, the four times grand prix winner told reporter Andy Gray, "I don't watch it anymore because it bores me. I watch the cars go around the circuit and I think this is incredibly boring because it is so flat."
"It's quite synthetic and it's not raw. It's too perfect and when you make a mistake you don't pay a price. I think the least you should do if you make a mistake is lose a lot of time."
"In the 1950s you got killed if you make a mistake, the 60s you could get killed, the 70s you hurt yourself most of the time and the 80s you hurt yourself some of the time.
"It's just got safer and safer. Which is a good thing but it's gone too far. It's just progress, progress, progress until it's like: what have we ended up with here? And I think we have ended up with something a bit mushy and not that interesting."
"I think manufacturers should not be allowed in Formula 1. I think they should be allowed in as engine suppliers and that's it."
"When manufacturers come in they spend a load of money and they either do well, or they don't. If they do well, they pull out because they have nothing left to prove. If they do really badly, they pull out because they are embarrassed."
"Ferrari has so much power and it sucks a lot of energy from the surrounding teams. I think Mercedes have too much financial might, causing the same problem."
"It's an evil necessity. It was great for me because they paid us a lot more money because of the pure torque of the manufacturers financially, but I think it lessens the sport a little bit."
"It's quite an in-depth thing and I think it probably needs to fall way back in financial terms before they can rebuild it and make it what it was, which was more gladiatorial and raw."
"There are many things that need to change, and each thing that you change would have a knock-on effect. But the new owner has paid a lot of money for it so I don't think the are going to take the risks to do it," added Irvine in his typical straightforward, echoing the concerns of many F1 fans.
https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/01/24/irvine-lewis-not-close-to-schumi-vettel-a-one-trick-pony/
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