I have to say that I am intrigued by the situation at Ferrari at the moment. Over the last couple of seasons we've all heard how Schumacher was the sole centre of attention at Benetton and how his teammates never got a look in. It seemed, for the first two thirds of last season, not a Grand Prix weekend went by without someone commenting that Johnny Herbert wasn't allowed any testing and that the car was designed exclusively around the wishes of just one man: Michael Schumacher. I remember both Hill and Alesi commenting that no one is two seconds faster that their team mate no matter how good they are. Because of this, the usual benchmark (i.e., a drivers speed relative to his teammate) didn't seem to apply. Some of us, myself included, have used this as a reason to suspect Schumacher's claim on the "best driver of the moment" title. Sure he was fast, but was he that fast? It was therefore with some relish that I looked forward to this new season with the prospect of Schumacher Vs Irvine at Ferrari.

Firstly, it should be an opportunity to judge Schumacher against another driver in a team that tries to provides equal equipment to both. Ferrari have generally been known to do this and certainly this has been the case for the last few seasons with Berger and Alesi -- neither one had complained about favoritism. You might say, because Ferrari are paying Schumacher 30-40 million dollars over the next couple of years, there might be some bias in his favour. And, yes, so far Schumacher's had the lions share of the limited amount of testing. However, it remains to be seen whether this will always be the case. If any team has the resources to give two drivers the cars they want, its got to be Ferrari. After all, the team does have the backing of Fiat.

The second reason for looking forward to this confrontation is Eddie Irvine himself. One wonders why Ferrari wanted Irvine in the first place, especially among rumours last year that Barrichello was offering to drive for them for free. In terms of their respective motor racing resumes, Barrichello's looks the more impressive; in fact, Barrichello's rise into Formula One looks remarkably similar to that of Michael Schumacher. Both drivers started racing (and winning) in the various karting classes progressing up to Formula Ford, then to championship wins in F3, then rapidly from there to F3000 and finally both getting there first taste of Formula One with the Jordan Team.

Irvine’s career, on the other hand, does not seem to have been as smooth. Funding the early part of his career by selling cars, he moved up through the various formule leading to a three year spell in Japanese F3000. Finally, he got his chance in F1 during the last two races of the 1993 World championship. Based on his performance during these two races, Eddie Jordan signed him up for the 1994 season.

One reason for Ferrari's choice of Irvine over Barrichello may have been Irvine's better qualifying performance during last season which, considering Barrichello's record prior to that and his performance with respect to Brundle, is looking all the more impressive. Ferrari may have been hoping a teammate with pace will push Schumacher to perform his best. Eddie Jordan certainly seems to rate Irvine very highly -- hence his much publicised bet with Flavio Briatore that Irvine will out qualify Schumacher several times this season. A reason given for Schumacher's speed over his teammates at Benetton has been his liking for an extremely pointy car and his ability (unlike his teammate’s) to control the cars balance using the throttle round fast corners. Interestingly its seems that Irvine also likes his set-up to result in a pointy car in fact he's been reported as saying that he probably prefers it even more pointy that Schumacher.

Some accounts of Eddie Irvine seem to portray a man with a playboy lifestyle for whom F1 is just a fun distraction. I'm sure this isn't the case. However, when it comes to racing, Eddie Irvine is not intimated by a person’s reputation alone, as I'm sure both Rubens Barrichello and the late Ayrton Senna (remember that punch up?) would both attest. Some of the more cynical observers think that Ferrari's choice of Irvine was to please the more romantic Ferrari fans -- the playboy Irvine giving them someone to cheer off the track while the emotionless Schumacher did the business on it. Interestingly, Irvine has taken a very pragmatic approach to his drive for Ferrari freely admitting he thinks Schumacher is "awesome" and that he is going to try and learn as much as possible from the World Champion. Considering his attitude toward Barrichello last year, this is no small tribute. However, its not an approach that is likely to endear him to the Tifosi.

In terms of results, the honours for the first two races are pretty even with both Schumacher and Irvine getting podium finishes in third. However, Schumacher looks the classier act, and, even we skeptics are beginning to admit he's probably the best around at the moment. There's still a long way to go this and it certainly wouldn't surprise me if Eddie Jordan wins his bet with Flavio. Of course, those true skeptics among us won't really be convinced of Schumacher's right to claim the title "best driver of the moment" until we see him teamed up with either Hakkinen or Frenzten in a Williams. Now what a season that would be...