Eddie Irvine Quotes

• During his first grand prix at Suzuka, Japan, Irvine twice unlapped himself after being lapped by Ayrton Senna; following the race, Senna punched him in the Jordan motorhome. During the argument Senna accused Irvine of almost hitting him on the track, to which Irvine responded 'A miss is as good as a mile.' After Senna's punch he yelled 'Insurance claim there!'
• After his first few races, Eddie remarked in an interview, 'What a start to my Grand Prix career. I got punched by Senna in my first race, crashed in my second, destroyed four cars in my third and got banned from my fourth. People are going to think I'm some kind of nutter.'
• Jordan team boss Eddie Jordan asked Irvine to participate in a photo shoot, but Irvine responded: 'Do I have to? Send out some f**ker in my helmet, they'll never know the difference'
• Irvine told the London Sunday Business Post about an encounter he had while trying to enter a nightclub in Dublin.
• In an interview after the Belgian Grand Prix, during which his car had caught fire: 'I saw the flames and I thought 'S**t! This thing's on fire!''
• In his first year with Ferrari, Eddie was asked why his teammate Michael Schumacher's helmet was oddly shaped. Irvine replied: 'Because he's German, he's got an odd shaped head.'
• ITV's Louise Goodman interviewed Irvine and called him Edmund; Irvine was rather irritated. Louise said that his mother probably called him that, and Irvine told her, 'Well, you are not my mum.'
• On Michael Schumacher's crash at Jerez: 'Honestly, I think we all would have done the same. But I'd like to think I'd have made a better job of it!'
• On whether he ever visited racing driver Damon Hill at his Dublin house: 'Well, to be honest, you'd have to be a pretty sad bastard to need a racing driver for a mate. I have normal friends and have the crack with them. Well, to be honest, most of the guys in Formula 1 just don't get it.'
• On crashing into Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton: 'I don't want to blame anyone, but I will say it wasn't my fault. I couldn't put the car into helicopter mode and suddenly disappear. He came out of the last corner very well and came alongside me. We braked at the same time and he turned in on me.'
• After winning a race in Australia which everyone expected Michael Schumacher would win: 'I tell you what, my bookie is not going to be too pleased. I put money on Michael to win and I put money on myself each-way as well. He'll be crying a bit today.'
• On becoming Ferrari's number one driver after Schumacher's injury at the British Grand Prix: 'Ferrari didn't hire me to win the world championship, but this is what they've asked for now and I'm going to try my best to deliver. To be Ferrari's number one driver is everybody's dream.'
• On leaving Ferrari for Jaguar at the end of the 1999 season: 'The timing is really fantastic. I was really desperate to get out of Ferrari this season, and I am a lucky, lucky guy. I could not have coped with another year because Michael Schumacher is so damn good. He is a back-breaker. He saps you, and the effort of working and competing with him drains you.'
• On his 'playboy' image: 'It's got me this far the way I do it. If you change it and get serious you are going to get depressed and you won't be as happy with your life. I have such a ball away from races that when I get to races I am actually looking forward to getting on with it. I'll be in the boat having a blast, but then on Thursday that'll stop. I'll get to the circuit relaxed and refreshed and that has got to put you in a better frame of mind.'
• On his poor performance at the European Grand Prix: 'Life is strange, but F1 is simply crazy.'
• On the reason behind his Australian popularity: 'Because it's full of Irish convicts'
• Asked which driver was his favorite: 'Hmmm...ammm...well we're all a bunch of tossers really!'
• On Ralf Schumacher: 'Ralf Schumacher had something missing from his head.'
• On Jacques Villeneuve, world champion and son of famous driver Gilles Villeneuve: 'Villeneuve only got into F1 'cos of his father.'
• On the national anthems played as the race winners accept their trophies: 'I couldn't give a s**t which song is played or which flag is flown. I race for myself and for no-one else.'
• Miss Belgium asked Irvine in the Spa paddock: 'How can I seduce you?' Irvine replied, 'Take your clothes off.' She wasn't charmed.
• An interviewer asked, 'Eddie, if you have Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher on a tower, whom would you throw out?' Irvine answered, 'Mika Hakkinen, because Michael Schumacher is already out of this championship.'
• Writing in his Formula 1 magazine column (May 2001) about the Italian traffic police: 'They're a lot less anal than the British when it comes to speed.'
• On his ambition to become Britain's number one driver: 'It's not significant at all. I might just as well still be doing British F3. It carries no weight at all, does it? I might sell a few more hats, but that's not what I am in F1 to do.'
• On fear: 'But fear is an irrational business. The things that really scare the s**t out of me are earwigs, which used to infest our home in Ireland. I'd rather do 180mph around Monza than even see an earwig, let alone have one crawling around on me. I don't like snakes, either, but they are about the only two things that scare me, except for weddings, of course, and commitment, but that's another story.'
• On his role at Jaguar in 2000: 'My job this year was to complain a lot about what was wrong. Hopefully, I won't have the need to do so much complaining.'
• On reports that Madonna had a crush on him: 'She obviously has impeccable taste in men'
• On his chances at another season with Jaguar: 'It will be difficult to do that badly again. If we do that badly again we deserve a good kicking.'
• On journalists: 'To be honest, journalists have pages to fill and some people fill them better than others. Sometimes, it's very easy to make a headline by writing things that aren't true and some people go down that route and some people go down the route of trying to be honest, hardworking and investigate journalists. It doesn't affect me, it's great, I love being in the newspapers, it makes me more famous.'
• On his status among drivers: 'You know there is no-one in the pit lane that is better than me, except for Michael [Schumacher]. I have no doubts about that.'
• On reports that the Jaguar staff aren't fond of him: 'It's such incredible fiction. Honestly, J.K. Rowling better watch out. She's got someone else going for the Booker prize.'
• On a third place at the Italian Grand Prix, which turned out to be his final podium finish: 'It's comforting to know that old farts like myself can still blow the pants off Formula One's young guns.'
• To an interviewer, on what he said to David Coulthard that made him so upset: 'I didn't call him a fag, I actually said he should stop being a fag and worrying about what I say.'
• On his retirement from F1: 'It's a sad day. I have decided not to drive in Formula One this year - or at least at the moment. In July last year I made up my mind to drive for Jordan Grand Prix. I had very strong feelings about returning to the team which started my F1 career. Unfortunately, due to the economic downturn, Jordan are forced to look for a driver who brings extra funds to the team whilst I can only bring speed, reliability and greater experience. It's a shame because I really would have enjoyed the rule changes, especially single-lap qualifying.'

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