ei

We read an article at the weekend that said that Eddie was the driver most girls fancied. Which strikes us as strange because we have yet to encounter anyone who dreams of experiencing Eddie love.

Still away from his so called charms, what about his racing? Well he's okay isn't he. Not great not too bad. He falls into the same catergory as Rubens really a good driver whos never likely to achieve anything more than possibly the odd win.

Eddie's finest season was undoubtably 1999 when Michael Schumacher was injured at Ferrari, he won four races, (two with significant help from Mika Salo and Michael Schumacher) and everyone raved about him. Just how good was this performance then?

Probably not very. The only reason Eddie came even halfway close to contending the title was because Michael came back in Malaysia. The fact that Michael, on his returen, managed to qualify nearly a second faster than Eddie and then completely dominate the race, must have been quite hard for Eddie to take. Just shows, you might be able to take on a weakened Mika, but he ain't no Schumi. We can't imagine how hard it must have been for Michael to let him past in Malaysia, knowing that Eddie could take the championship he'd been craving for five years. Even if he didn't try his hardest in Japan you can't really blame him.

After Japan Eddie decided he wanted to front the Jaguar team, we suspect this decsion had little to do with the excuse he gave, "I wanted to race in a team that didn't employ team orders" and more to do with wanting a move that doubled his salery and where he wouldn't be humiliated by how much faster Michael was in the same car.

So he moved to Jaguar, he had an anonymous 2000 season rather making his suggestion that Jaguar would be strong contenders, seem laughable. 2001 was more of the same, although he scored a few more points and came third in Monaco (thanks to a breakdowns from Ralf Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen and a stall on the grid from David Coulthard)

2002 will be more of the same, middle of the grid obscurity. If Jaguar show any sign of becoming title challengers it will be a matter of races before the ditch Pedro D-L-R and employ a decent number one driver. Eddie will be relegated once again to team No 2 or a different team altogether.

He has spent most of the winter break embroiled in a war of words with any number of drivers, Jenson Button and Ralf Schumacher to name just two. Maybe Eddie should concentrate more on his own driving rather than worrying about other peoples.