That was a great interview. I always find Eddie very interesting to listen to. He is very good at explaining things in a Big Picture way. And doesn’t bog you down with confusing details.
Eddie was my favourite driver back in the day. Was gutted in 99 when he narrowly missed out to Mika for the championship. I used to get stick from mates because they all supported Schumacher, Coulthard, Hakkinen etc. They were silenced in 99 when he was almost world champion 🤣
You never asked him the most important question. Did he feel Ferrari sabotaged his world drivers championship campaign in 1998 when Schumacher broke his leg. The Ferrari was fast that year, but Schumacher hadn’t won his title with them yet. That year Irvine was fast. I remember watching that year thinking he was going to win the championship. There were bad pit strategies thrown at him that were basic errors anyone could have avoided. For me I think he was scammed and robbed of his world championship title.
I met him at the Hollywood club in Milan, back when he was in Ferrari. He defo was one of my favourite drivers✌️✨ Adoro guidare e camminare con Valleverde Formula 😄
He surely meant 10 million, and I very much doubt it was for one season only. 1 billion for a racing driver is just a ridiculous amount to even entertain even today, that figure would buy entire F1 teams altogether.
He wasn't. IIRC, he was a number 2 driver by contract, but having more or less matched (or gotten closer) to Schumacher in 1999, he asked for equal status. Ferrari responded by signing Rubens instead.
After 1998, Irvine wanted equal status with Schumi (tbf that was a big ask, but to Eddie's credit, he did discreetly move over for Schumi around 4 or 5 times that season, despite being given less testing or focus in the previous 2 seasons). In 99 he was getting even closer. For 99 he did manage to get the right to setup his car whatever way he wanted, instead of being Schumi's experimentation car (yep, thats right, was contractually obliged to race on a setup basically designed for MS). But by then Ferrari knew that Irvine would want more. Rubens Barrichello was more experienced than Irvine, despite being much younger, and was the next best driver available. All Rubens wanted at that time was a win. Ferrari could give him that, but they could only give him a similar contract to Eddie in 99. Eddie at the time was basically the 3rd or 4th best driver in F1 (Coulthard). They knew Eddie would not agree to being Schumi's lapdog again for 2000, and Stewart knew that Jaguar were coming with the big bucks. He thought he was going to a team that was going to be able to challenge Mclaren and Ferrari, when instead they just changed a colour scheme of a year old car. It was basically a match made in heaven...Eddie would get mega money, Rubens would get mega car, just as Ferrari, with the help of getting half a season head start after Schumi's crash, became the dominant team. .
Because of the camera position on a computer I think! This way, you cannot tell that he's not making eye contact with the viewer (you) while he is looking at the interviewer on his screen. An assumption.
It might sound ridiculous but i've started to watch F1 back in 2000 because of..green metalic cars and Eddie. Then i had to rewatch all of his ferrari years when it became possible. What can i say these folks at Jaguar i mean eddie and lauda in particular they knew how to make money for sure - the car was shit, the team was shit, performace was shit but there was no way you can tell that they were boring - quite an opposite. Eddie used to put on a show (not neccesary get the good result) almost every next weekend, pushing 120proc from that green cat, and then his interviews, the look of his helmet, his behaviour - not by surprise I still have his 1:18 diecast model in my home, just to remind me all that swagger, made such a huge impact on me in my teenage years. Well marketed project lets do not forget this is a current Red Bull Racing Squad ;)
I worked on Irvine's car at Jaguar Racing in 2000. He and I got on great, and when they gave him a car that could do the job, he was 'ON IT'. Sadly, that wasn't that often.
Eddie is one of the smartest and coolest cats to ever race. But to use this interview for a click baitey title like "he ripped off Jaguar" is ridiculous. He negociated well and Jaguar shot themselves in the foot by then under investing. They "ripped themselves" off.
10-figure numbers? What? 1.000.000.000 1 Bilion thats 10 figures. So he made north of 1 bilion Euros in his last years with Jaguar? Obviously not the brightest chap. But yeah money makes money
