Irvine has his doubts about Raikkonen

Raikkonen will step in for Mika Hakkinen next year as the former champion takes a break from F1. He is believed to be on a six-year deal with the Mercedes-powered team and has been tipped to be the man who could challenge Schumacher's place as Grand Prix racing's top driver.

But Irvine believes Raikkonen still has a lot to prove and that another driver could still come along to be Schumacher's biggest threat.

"Michael is here until the end of 2004, and in that time a new Michael Schumacher could come along and Raikkonen could prove not to be that good," he said. "There is not much between Nick Heidfeld and Raikkonen [at Sauber this year]. Raikkonen came in and did a good job immediately and has stayed at that level. He hasn't gone up. He did a bloody good job but the line is not going up - but I haven't been looking that closely."

Like many people in F1, Irvine predicts that Schumacher and Ferrari will dominate the next few years. "Ferrari will stick with Michael Schumacher until someone comes along who is quicker and then Michael will be walking away anyway," he said. "Ferrari won't have an issue until Michael goes, but [team-mate] Rubens [Barrichello] can do a good job, we have seen that.

"I think now you are going to see a period of Ferrari domination, the championship will not even be close. It is not good to have the best driver in the best car. It was good initially because Ferrari won the championship, but you don't want to see the same guy winning all the time. Having said that, people love to watch Tiger Woods winning because you want to be in awe of excellence and I guess it is the same with Michael."

As for his own team, Irvine believes Jaguar will become a top five outfit next year. But he admits that it won't happen until the "middle and end" of the season.