Former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine has opined that no current generation F1 driver can be compared to his former teammate and Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher. He told Motorsport-Total that back in his time no other driver was as capable as Schumacher after Aryton Senna’s death. Speaking about the drivers racing in Formula One today, Irvine went on to label Sebastian Vettel an “arrogant, well educated kid”. And coming to himself too, he admitted not being comparable to Michael Schumacher. Irvine raced in Formula One from 1996 to 1999. He made 146 grand prix starts, winning four times for Ferrari. He holds a strong opinion that current generation drivers are no match for Schumacher.
“Vettel is a arrogant, well educated kid and damn good driver, but not on Michael’s level, Lewis (Hamilton) is a damn good driver, but everyone knew Michael was on a different level,” he said of today’s drivers, also admitting that arrogance was part of being F1 driver. “This is how we behave. I was just like that, and so is Lewis, look at (Fernando) Alonso, these guys are arrogant, that’s what drives them to get into Formula One.”
Irvine said that narcissism and arrogance is kindled in Formula 1 drivers, and these were qualities which “do not make us nice humans”.
Continuing on how he thought that Schumacher was an exceptional F1 driver, Irvine said that after Senna’s death, no one could drive a car like Michael Schumacher, and that is what helped Ferrari at the time.
“When we were teammates I knew I was not as good as Michael. When I saw Michael drive I realised he could do things I could not do with the car. Mika (Häkkinen) was perhaps better than the rest of us but Michael was better than him too,” Irvine explained.
