Irvine: Lew more complete than schu

Former Ferrari and Jaguar ace Eddie Irvine believes that British super-rookie Lewis Hamilton could become an even more formidable driver than seven-time champion Michael Schumacher.

The Ulsterman, who was paired alongside the German legend at Ferrari from 1996-'99, joined the growing ranks of former racers paying compliment to the 22-year-old McLaren ace after Hamilton became the youngest ever world championship leader after finishing second in Spain on Sunday.

"Yet again he's [Lewis] beaten a two-time world champion [Fernando Alonso] and he can't do any better than that," Irvine told Virgin Media.

"You can't expect him to win the race because the Ferrari was clearly the better car but he's performing perfectly and there's nothing you can criticise about the guy.

"Nobody has ever walked into a car and been as good as that at the beginning of their F1 career with that amount of talent."

Irvine, who won four grands prix for Ferrari, also reckons that unlike his former team-mate, Lewis does not appear to have any weaknesses in his armoury.

"Schumacher has the same amount of talent, maybe more on speed but I think Lewis seems to be a more complete package than Schumacher," he added.

"Schumacher's ability was pure pace and you can never compare the two because they'll never drive against each other but Michael wasn't great under pressure and Lewis seems to not know what pressure is."

Having beaten Alonso fair and square in their last two outings, Irvine reckons Monaco could prove a crunch test for Lewis's ice-cool composure with the inevitable ramp up of expectations from the media and the British fans.

"It will be interesting to see if Lewis does start to feel any pressure if people now expect him to beat Alonso regularly," he said.

"Expectations will go up and that's when the pressure will go up."

Though Irvine, who was a master of the mind-games when he raced alongside Rubens Barrichello at Jordan, also urged Hamilton to pounce on a unique opportunity to play on Alonso's recent lack of form.

"If you look at when [Jarno] Trulli started to get on top of him at Renault, Alonso started performing worse and that's common amongst drivers," he added.

"When you're quicker than your team-mate you feel good about yourself, you drive faster, you feel faster but when your team-mate starts to get on top of you, you start thinking about it and you go slower.

"Alonso's got a lot to think about now."

Personal Note: Just posting what i see.:P

Yay!!!! For my 1000th post, I can tell sh*t about Schumi!!!

Look Schumi was FAST and was pretty good but he never perfomed as well as Hamilton when he started out. I think that he is the no1 best driver in f1 this year!!!

"You can never compare those two because they'll never drive against each other.

kipi19

I vote for this opinion (I know there is no voting but....) I think if Schumacher was still driving than you can say all about schumacher and what's going to happen and stuff..

But Hamilton IS the BEST rookie that's true :)

[QUOTE="kipi19"]

"You can never compare those two because they'll never drive against each other.

Rusje

I vote for this opinion (I know there is no voting but....) I think if Schumacher was still driving than you can say all about schumacher and what's going to happen and stuff..

But Hamilton IS the BEST rookie that's true :)

Well , at the moment ...................he is the best driver too ( Number 1 in the World Champ ) . 

Although he is good and rookie of the year, he and Michael are two different era. It's hard to make conclusion like that

Although he is good and rookie of the year, he and Michael are two different era. It's hard to make conclusion like that

Khoo1992

Yeah , Michael had the best car for 5 years and Hamilton doesn't :lol: . Let's be honest , Michael was great but he is not "THAT GREAT" , he never won a title with a slower car and he never had any strong ( except Irvine ) competition in his team .For the most part , last season , the Ferrari cars were better than the Renault but still , Alonso won . Now Hamilton seriously kicks Alonso's a$$ so I guess Irvine is right when he said that Hamilton is a more complete ( I didn't say better ) driver that Michael . Sorry for all those Shumi fans ( I was one too ) but what i said it's true and all of you know that .

[QUOTE="Khoo1992"]

Although he is good and rookie of the year, he and Michael are two different era. It's hard to make conclusion like that

ebolanow

Let's be honest , Michael was great but he is not "THAT GREAT" , he never won a title with a slower car 

a good part of his success is due to his ability to with his team to develop and improve the car. Its not his fault is he put in more effort than any other driver (except maybe alonso this year) to get every tenth out of the car, what did u want him to do? Slow down and let the others catch up? 

A good driver works hard on track, a great driver works hard on and off track 8)

[QUOTE="Khoo1992"]

Although he is good and rookie of the year, he and Michael are two different era. It's hard to make conclusion like that

ebolanow

Yeah , Michael had the best car for 5 years and Hamilton doesn't :lol: . Let's be honest , Michael was great but he is not "THAT GREAT" , he never won a title with a slower car and he never had any strong ( except Irvine ) competition in his team .For the most part , last season , the Ferrari cars were better than the Renault but still , Alonso won . Now Hamilton seriously kicks Alonso's a$$ so I guess Irvine is right when he said that Hamilton is a more complete ( I didn't say better ) driver that Michael . Sorry for all those Shumi fans ( I was one too ) but what i said it's true and all of you know that .

Actually, Michael's first two titles were in 1994-95 and were both in the Benetton. In 94, the Williams was far superior to the Benetton. In 95, the Benetton narrowed the gap a little, but the Williams was still the best overall package quite comfortably. Sure, the 94 Championship was a very narrow win and I won't go into whether certain tactics were legal or not, but in 95, Schumi romped away from Hill, and like I said, he did so with a slightly inferior car.

Actually, I know everything there is to know about Michael's carear, but thanks anyway. Williams had a fast but GOD AWFULL car that year, they had no chance against Benetton (Renault today, Flavio Briatore was there too), that car killed Senna, what do you want more? In 1995, well................. I can't believe your talking about that year, they were light years ahead of Williams, WTH ?I am not saying Shumi was bad, not at all, he is a true Legend, I am only saying that there are better pilots out there than never had his luck, and I am sure some of you think the same.
ebolanow

Indeed, in 1994 the Williams was damn fast. I do, however, fail to see your point regarding Senna. One awful incident doesn't mean that the car was crap, and I'm telling you, it wasn't. It was actually fairly reliable, as can be seen by the fact that Hill only had 3 retirements (one of them Adelaide).

I'll concede that in 1995 the Williams could have been more reliable, but I maintain that when it was actually on the track, it was slightly superior to the Benetton in terms of power. Of course I can't argue about his Ferrari years, as the car was phenomenal. I just wanted to show that for at least 2 of his 7 championships, Schumi had a car that wasn't miles ahead of the rest of the field.