by Rob Wilkins
TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW IN FULL WITH TONY JARDINE: CLICK HERE
Tony Jardine was the host at Cars International's 'Mille Miglia - Then and Now' evening with Sir
Stirling Moss and celebrity
BBC chef James Martin on Wednesday.
Crash.net Radio caught up with the motorsport pundit and
Sky Sports presenter at that event in Kensington, London and got his thoughts on it - and the goings on in
F1 this year...
Crash.net:
Tony, what have you made of the 'Mille Miglia – Then and Now' evening?
Tony Jardine:
It has been superb. It has been a bit of nostalgia, mixed with legends and current
Formula 1 people. We have had Cosworth people here, we have had Martin Brundle here - all sorts of people have turned out because the greatest legend of them all, Sir Stirling Moss OBE was here talking about, what was in my opinion, one of the greatest wins ever in his career, the 1955 Mille Miglia. Cars International have recently discovered one of his road cars, which was supplied by Mercedes GB and which he used for promotional purposes leading up to the Mille Miglia. We showed him all the pictures of him driving this car in the snow at
Brands Hatch in 1955 and so on and so forth. Linking that car to him and getting him to shares his memories of the great event was very enjoyable.
But that was the 'Then' and then we had the 'Now' with James Martin, the
BBC chef, who is going to do the Mille Miglia, nostalgia retro event. He will be doing that in about six day's time. He took advice from Stirling and came up on stage. It was really a lovely mixture of the history and the current modern day people, like James, who just loves his motoring and motor sport.
Crash.net:
The Mercedes Benz 300 SLGullwing is obviously for sale, what's the price tag?
TJ:
You know what I haven't bothered to ask, because I know I can't afford it whatever it is! But I am sure someone here will be able to afford it. I would have thought because Sir Stirling has driven it, with its history and everything thing and it is immaculate and it is the 19th SLGullwing ever built, so I would have thought £5 and the rest!
[laughs]
Crash.net:
What have you made of F1 so far this season?
TJ:
It started off in a very exciting fashion with Lewis [Hamilton] hammering them all in Australia. But then we had our doubts because Albert Park is not a real, real test of the cars and aerodynamics. So by the time we got to Barcelona, Ferrari, who tested so well over the winter, were looking very, very strong.
McLaren have just got to fight back now. For me it is fascinating because you have got
BMW knocking on the door and you have even got
Red Bull and Adrian Newey's team with
Mark Webber starting to do well too. I am off to Turkey now and I am going to enjoy that. It is a hell of a circuit and even though it is a new track, it has the notorious turn 8 there. I think it is going to be a very, very exciting year and I am waiting for McLaren to bite back and make a little bit of a jump, which I am sure they will, and really fight back against
Ferrari.
Crash.net:
When do you expect to see Lewis and McLaren comeback?
