Schumacher is Blameless, Says Irvine

Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine has defended World Champion Michael Schumacher after Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, where the German Ferrari driver won the race after his team asked teammate Rubens Barrichello to back off in the final part of the event.

Some Formula One observers have suggested that Schumacher, who leads the Championship by 27 points, should have ignored Ferrari's orders to overtake Barrichello, but Irvine - Schumacher's teammate at Ferrari from 1996 to 1999 - said the four-time champion is just another employee and had to do he was told.

"Michael is blameless because his hands are tied just as much as Rubens' are," Irvine told The Sun newspaper. "Forget the millions that he is paid, the wins he has delivered - or his status within the team. He is just another employee who has to do as he is told.

"If he had gone against the team's wishes that would have been anarchy - and Schumacher is a true professional and team player. I drove alongside Michael for three [should be four] years and never disobeyed an instruction.

"If I had ignored their pleas to move over for Michael in the 1999 French Grand Prix, so he could gain an extra point, I would have been sacked."

Ulsterman Irvine said that if someone's to blame for Sunday's incident, it should be Ferrari's sporting director Jean Todt and technical director Ross Brawn, who defended their decision after being subject to a lot of criticism in the past days.

"If the finger has to be pointed in any direction it must be at Todt and Brawn," Irvine added. "Ross is a great guy but also a viciously ambitious person and nothing must get in the way of Ferrari winning the World Championship. That is his brief and he wants to fulfil it.

"The focus is to clinch a third World Championship in a row. But Ferrari are bigger and better than that. It is not collecting more silverware that matters, but the style in which you do it."