MB:
It was fantastic - a brilliant result. Nobody ever thought he would come in and do what he did. Nobody ever thought he would be fighting for the world championship right up to the end and no one really ever thought he would be there winning grand's prix as quickly as what he did. He has made a statement and he has come into the sport with a bang and he is here to stay. It won't be long in the future before he is crowned world champion, because for sure he has got the talent to do that.
Crash.net:
We saw a side to
Fernando Alonso this season, which I think is fair to say, has left his reputation a bit tarnished. Would you agree with that?
MB:
Yeah, from my side of things he is damaged goods. He has created an area of concern about him because any team now cannot be confident that he is not going to destabilise things. That is definitely what he did at
McLaren. I was somewhat surprised by how he acted because I think he pretty much had the championship for the taking if he had kept his head down and shown us what a great driver we all know him to be. He has won two championships already and he is still a young man and he had a great deal to offer and that was very evident on many occasions. But unfortunately I think his reputation is slightly tarnished now.
[Mark was speaking before Renault confirmed they had resigned him for 2008 – ed].
Crash.net:
If you had to pick out your top five drivers' of the season, who would they be?
MB:
I would put
Kimi Raikkonen as the top driver, because I think he is deserving of that. Then I would put Lewis with Alonso third,
Felipe Massa fourth and
Robert Kubica fifth. Kubica did a really good job.
Crash.net:
If you discounted
Lewis Hamilton, who would be you're rookie of the year? It would have to be between
Heikki Kovalainen,
Adrian Sutil and Sebastian Vettel wouldn't it?
MB:
Those guys would obviously be vying for honours if it wasn't for Lewis and what he did this season. But if we exclude him, I would probably go with
Sebastian Vettel. He came in and did a very good job [once he joined Toro Rosso] and was solid against his team-mate and with the equipment he had.
Adrian Sutil was also outstanding but on many occasions made a few mistakes, which were quite costly.
Overall Heikki Kovalainen really had a little bit more available to him and he didn't really extract it. It was only until mid-way through the season that he started to get it together with the car and the team and then it kind of petered off at the end of the season. I was expecting slightly more from him but maybe that was because the expectations of him as a driver were quite high for a lot of us.
Crash.net:
What did you think of the performances of
Jenson Button,
David Coulthard and Anthony Davidson?
MB:
Anthony Davidson was very solid and deserves a place in
F1 in the future. He put in some good results and was a good addition to the
Super Aguri team.
