Irvine continues war of words

(12-Jul-98) - Ferrari front-runner Eddie Irvine has re-iterated his
comments about McLaren's ability to win the championship which caused much
heated discussion in Friday's press conference.

"I would stand by that," Irvine insisted. "No doubt about
it. They should have been a lot further ahead than they are at this point.
They have made strategy mistakes, and strategy-wise we at Ferrari are
second to none. We need a faster car and we are working on that but over
the season I would put my money on Michael to win the championship."

"Schumacher is a serious class act. He is a lot younger than Senna was
and he is not as flamboyant as Senna but for me he drives better than Senna
did. The guy can get a corner perfect so there is no point where you ever
take time off him."

"With other drivers you will take time off them under-braking and
you'll put it back mid-corner. Michael has no weak spots. He goes all the
way in on the brakes and then he is just hard all the way on the throttle.
There is no going round a corner blip-blip-blip."

"The season has gone well so far but I measure myself against Michael.
He has done better than me and though that's where I am aiming to be it's a
bit like banging your head against a brick wall. I have been driving my
balls off to try to get close to Michael, and when I do it's very
satisfying. It's hard work, though, f****ing hard work."

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