I’ve a long standing love for Ferrari, as you may have noticed. But I’ve also a general dislike of Michael Schumacher, so I’ve tended to prefer the second driver. Especially when said second driver was one Eddie Irvine, who was pretty much the polar opposite of Schumacher.

Outspoken, entertaining, in the red cars and not afraid to drink heavily during the days before a race, Irvine was pretty much the Formula 1 driver that I most wanted to be. He rocked.

Since he left Formula 1, it’s been a lot quieter, dominated not by the playboys and entertainers but by the clinical, machine-like drivers. Can you imagine any of the current crop being happy to talk to people in a bar just before a race, or getting involved in a punch-up in the pits?

As it happens, there is one other reason to want to be Eddie. Consider carefully the following graph from this article on richness.

Basicially, yer man is worth around £160m. More than the Beckams, and £100m more than Nigel Mansell.

No wonder he’s always got that daft smile on his face…