The Year According to Murray, Part I

Murray Walker might have retired from his ITV commentary duties a few years ago, but he's kept in close touch with the sport through his PR commitments with Honda.

He goes to most of the European races, and will also be at Fuji and Shanghai later in the season.

Having followed the careers of British heroes Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill so closely, he's missed out on the Lewis Hamilton era, although he made a one-off return with BBC Radio 5 Live at the European GP.

He didn't bring Hamilton much luck, though, as it was the first time that the McLaren driver has finished off the podium this year, but nevertheless, one of the most dramatic races in a long time gave Murray the chance to show that he can still convey the excitement of F1 like no one else.

Q: What's your verdict on Lewis Hamilton so far this year?

Murray Walker: "I've been watching Grand Prix racing since before WW2, and Lewis Hamilton is without precedent.

"Nobody that I can think of the entire history of motor racing has been so successful as quickly and as consistently as he has.

"And from the point of view of an Englishman, it's not just that he's such a good driver with such obvious potential - he's at the start of a very steep learning curve and still has enormous amount to learn - but he's also such a nice man.

"He's cheerful, friendly, authoritative, eloquent, and dignified, doesn't adversely criticise his fellow drivers, he's always polite. To me, he's the ideal racing driver. He's got everything."

Q: When did you first meet him?

Walker: "I first actually talked to him about six years ago I think, at the Autosport Awards. He came up to me and said hello, and we had a chat.

"I knew who he was then, because it had been common knowledge that McLaren had been supporting and developing him for a long, long time, and it was always obvious that he was going to be good.

"I keep on saying to people, Lewis Hamilton is very, very good, but he wouldn't have been as successful as quickly as he has if it hadn't been for the nurturing and support that McLaren in general and Ron Dennis in particular have given him.

"He has been fantastically lucky, because he had everything that money could buy - I'm told that McLaren has invested about £5m (GBP) in him and I can well believe it.

"People are saying they've got a good return, but that's with the wisdom of hindsight; they didn't know at the time that he was going to be as good as he is.

"McLaren have been very lucky, but Lewis has been very lucky too. No disrespect to him, you have to wonder how many other people there are like him who are very, very good, but will never get the opportunity to exploit their talent, because they haven't had the support.

"But having said that, I find it difficult to find enough superlatives to say how impressed I am with him."

Q: This was supposed to be a learning year, but he's taken on a double World Champion in the same car ...

Walker: "Again one of the many things that's impressed me is his maturity as an individual, and his determination and his sheer gutsiness as a driver.

"You have to start thinking of Nigel Mansell when you look at some of the things that Lewis Hamilton has done, in GP2 and of course in F1. He's got that ability to see a gap and dive into it, and stick on the line no matter what the other people do.

"The other thing is the way he copes with the thing that racing drivers hate - the media. Obviously he's an absolute honey from the point of view of the media, because he's young, he's good looking, he's talented, he's successful, he's wealthy, and he's a national hero in Britain, and Britain has been hungry for a national hero since Damon Hill, and even more so since Nigel Mansell.

"Nigel had something that none of the others have had, and I'm sure that Lewis Hamilton has got that. The way he copes with the media is extremely impressive, because he doesn't just give monosyllabic answers, he'll give you a full, intelligent, comprehensive and authoritative answer, politely and cheerfully.'"

Q: What do you think of Alonso's performance this year?

Walker: "Alonso is a proud Spaniard. No racing driver, and certainly no F1 driver, likes being beaten. They're there to win, and they all think understandably that they're better than anybody else.

"Well, Alonso has proved up to now that he is or was better than anybody else, because he was World Champion in 2006, and in 2005, and he did it with distinction and style.

"Now, he's not only got someone who is at least as good as he is, but arguably better than he is, in the same team. Not just in the same team, but someone in his first year of F1.

"We've seen a lot of press stuff about Alonso being rattled - I don't think he's rattled, he's a very mature, sensible bloke, but he must be very concerned.

"There's no question of Hamilton deferring to him, there's no question of Hamilton being given team orders by McLaren to back off when he's been anywhere near Alonso - it's been each man for himself, and they've had some very fair but very impressive fights already, and I'm sure there's more to come.

"Alonso must lie in bed awake worrying about how he's going to cope with his team mate!'"

Q: He was unlucky in places like Canada and France, but he's also made mistakes ...

Walker: "If you're an Englishman you see Spaniards as a Latin race, and excitable, and I would not before have applied that description to Alonso.

"But you often get a very different expression of a man's personality when he's under as much pressure as Alonso obviously is. And yes, it looks as though Hamilton is capable of pushing Alonso so hard that he makes mistakes.

"And of course if you make a mistake in F1, where not just tenths of a second but hundredths matter, you can be in real trouble very quickly that you can't recover from."

Q: What did you make of what happened in Hungary?

Walker: "It just shows how single-minded, determined and not to say ruthless they are - or have got to be - doesn't it? It seems to be even worse than Senna and Prost, if that's possible!"

Q: Moving on to Ferrari, do you think Felipe Massa has stepped up a gear since Michael left?

Walker: "I'm very impressed with Massa. Not as impressed as I am with Hamilton, but very impressed nevertheless. You've got to bear in mind now that Massa's got a lot of experience with Sauber and Ferrari, but he has matured in a way that I frankly didn't expect him to.

"He's always had a reputation for being extremely quick, but he's also had a reputation for being wild, and liable to go off the circuit.

"Well, this year, Casey Stoner, the Australian in MotoGP, was exactly the same. Last year he was jumping off the bike a lot, this year he's matured and winning races.

"Massa is exactly the same. I don't know, but I wonder to what extent the support and tutelage that he would have had from Michael Schumacher will have helped him.

"But Massa has got an advantage that Alonso hasn't got in their respective teams - Massa has been at Ferrari for a long time. Alonso is new to McLaren, Hamilton is not new to McLaren.

"In F1 it matters a great deal that you are up to speed with all the personnel that you're working with, and you know the systems that they operate. And although one F1 team may seem to be much like another, the fact is they are different people operating different ways, and it can take quite a long time to get on top of it.

"In Alonso's case he's also having to cope with Bridgestone tyres instead of Michelin tyres, and although it seems incredible to an ordinary motorist that tyres, which most of us regard as round black objects, can make so much difference, the fact is that they do.

"Alonso may, for all I know, still be struggling a bit to get to grips with the different characteristics of Bridgestone tyres."

Q: What do you think of Kimi Raikkonen this year?

Walker: "I'll chose my words carefully, but when he was with McLaren his work ethic - or lack of it - could be covered up by the team, because they're that sort of organisation.

"But Ferrari are used to taking their lead from one of the most outstanding drivers of all time, Michael Schumacher, who was not only a fantastic driver, but who led from the front with the team.

"He contributed to the development of the cars in all sorts of ways that a normal driver wouldn't do, and it appears to me Kimi Raikkonen certainly does not do.

"When the car stops Raikkonen is out of the paddock and on his way home, while Michael Schumacher would have been staying there until 8 or 9pm going over every last detail, like Senna used to do.

"He's won some races, and allegedly the car set-up wasn't what he wanted to be and they're getting it that way, but I would expect him to do a lot better from now on.

"The fact remains in personality terms he is not a grafter, a worker, in the same way that Schumacher was and Ferrari are used to. And I would have thought that that would not help the team."

Q: Are you impressed by the progress of BMW?

Walker: "I'm a great BMW fan. I drive a BMW myself, I used to ride BMW motorcycles, and I've always had a close association with them.

"And I thought it was very, very brave of Mario Theissen and BMW in general to throw their hat into the ring and get involved in F1, because if they had failed their reputation would have suffered.

"However, they did get involved, and the progress they have made in one-and-a-half seasons is impressive. They have the advantage of taking over a very competent outfit in Sauber, with ready-made facilities, good personnel.

"What Sauber basically needed was more money, which BMW have pumped in. But even against that background they've done an unbelievably good job."

Q: What about the two drivers?

Walker: "I spent a day with Robert Kubica before Silverstone. I had not met him before and to be honest my image of him before was uncommunicative and maybe a bit surly.

"I bitterly regret even having had that impression because he turns out to be an absolutely super bloke with a very well-developed sense of humour, extremely pleasant, eloquent, good fun to talk to him, and I'm very impressed by him as an individual. He's really impressed me.

"I feel very sorry for Heidfeld, because he did very well in the categories up to F3000, and he was supported by McLaren in the same way that Hamilton has been, and he could justifiably have expected to get the McLaren job.

"But he didn't get it and was cast into the wilderness, and went to Prost, Sauber and Jordan. You've got to take your hat off to him for persevering. Now at last with BMW he's getting the opportunity to show how good he is, and he's very good indeed.

"You've got a similar situation with Kubica and Heidfeld as you have with Hamilton and Alonso and Massa and Raikkonen. Heidfeld is good, and he's one problem I think is that he is quiet and introverted, doesn't make a fuss, doesn't bang the table, gets on with the job, does it extremely well.

"But F1 is a rough, tough ruthless business, and you need to make your presence felt. I just hope Heidfeld doesn't suffer by virtue of not being pushy.

"The shining example is Nigel Mansell, who was always making a fuss and complaining and generally making things difficult for the people he worked with. But he got results!"

Next week: Murray on Renault, Honda and the rest of the grid

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