Sniff Petrol is delighted to welcome back the famous F1 team owner turned TV pundit to deal out more of his unique brand of agony aunt advice.
Dear Eddie, I got divorced three years ago and since then I have found it difficult to meet new people. I have some great friends but I’m looking for someone ‘special’. I just don’t know how to find them! Rachel, Sussex
Eddie replies: Well of course, if you’re talking about someone ‘special’ then there’s no one more special than the master, the seven time world champion, the legend that is Michael Schumacher. In my view, there’s no one who has ever and will ever touch Michael for sheer genius in a Formula 1 car and I still remember the first time he drove for me at Jordan F1 back in 1991, because people forget that before Benetton, before Ferrari, he was at Jordan and his talent was just immense and I knew that and that’s basically why I decided to discover Michael Schumacher, just because there was no one else who was going to because, in truth, they just weren’t me. I was me. And I was bloody good at it.
Dear Eddie, Our eldest son has just turned 15 and is becoming increasingly ‘distant’ from the rest of the family. It’s really starting to worry me but I don’t want to suffocate him with love and attention because I feel it will just drive him away. What should I do to keep him a part of our family? Jane, Leeds
Eddie replies: I always believed that we had a great family atmosphere at Jordan F1 and you know that was mostly down to me because I was like the dad of the family, although I don’t think most dads gave none other than Rubens Barrichello his first drive in Formula 1! But that was the kind of thing we did back then. I’d see this Brazilian kid, and I’d think, he’s great. Next thing, he’d be driving for me. It was crazy, you know, but also it was brilliant because I suppose, really, what I’m saying is that I was brilliant. I know that sounds big headed or whatever, but I’m not going to come here, onto a website that can be read all around the world and, you know, LIE about something as important as how great I am.
Dear Eddie, I’m convinced that my girlfriend is cheating on me. She swears that she isn’t and even my friends reckon I’m being daft but I just can’t shake this feeling off and it’s destroying our relationship. What should I do? Kevin, Telford
Eddie replies: I guess the question here is, what is cheating? You know, when Jordan was in F1 we sometimes got accused of bending the rules slightly but I think we always did it in a way that was legitimate and I think we’ll be remembered for that as much as we’ll be remembered as the team that gave British world champion Damon Hill a drive for not one but two years, and that wasn’t cheating, that was just something we had to do, something I personally had to do actually, because I knew it was a great idea. I’m not saying all my ideas were great, but the truth is they were and it’s taken me a while to realise that. It’s probably something that I ignored at the time, you know, when you’ve got all these people saying ‘Eddie, you’re just so great’ and maybe you don’t listen at the time and I think that’s why, in my view, it took me a while after I stepped back from F1 to actually realise how brilliant I really was.
