Schumacher Dominance Not Good for F1, Says Irvine

Michael Schumacher's former Ferrari teammate Eddie Irvine believes that the dominance of the four-time World Champion German is not good for the sport.

Schumacher has won eight of the 15 races so far this season, and, apart from the Italian Grand Prix where he was not at his best, he has come first or second in every race he has finished this season. That, says Irvine, takes something away from the sport and he believes Formula One needs more competition to regain some lost excitement.

"It is not good to have the best driver in the best car," said Irvine. "It was good initially because Ferrari won the Championship, but you don't want to see the same guy winning all the time."

However, Schumacher is now second only to Juan Manuel Fangio in terms of Championships won, and he holds the all-time record of Grand Prix victories, so Irvine can see that some may just admire his greatness.

"Some people love to watch (American golfer) Tiger Woods winning because you want to be in awe of excellence," he continued. "I guess it is the same with Michael."

Irvine also believes he can put the finger on just why Ferrari have become so dominant in recent years. He left Ferrari for Jaguar at the end of 1999 after coming within a whisker of taking the World Championship back to Italy.

But since the end of that year, something on the technical side of Ferrari has changed, and that seems to have given the team a massive boost.

"Ferrari have had the new wind-tunnel on line since the end of 1999," said Irvine. "They were working in a very old wind-tunnel before and I think at the end of 1999 they got it up and running properly. The 2000 car was the first one that came from it. It was nearly as good as the McLaren and Michael made up the difference.

"And the 2001 car was as good and Michael again made the difference, so I think now it's Ferrari domination. The Championship is not even close."