Q&A: Murray Walker [2].

Following Friday's announcement that Murray Walker will continue to 'broadcast' to his fans worldwide through his involvement with Orange, Crash.Net caught up with him at the launch of the 'Orange Murray Walker race review' and asked him a few questions about his thoughts on the 2002 season and a lot more:

Q:
Murray [Walker] - the 2002 F1 season is now gearing up, the Grand Prix party was this week and in a few weeks time the season will kick-off in Melbourne, Australia. How did you feel before this Orange deal came along?

Murray Walker:
Well this [the Orange announcement] is a genuinely big occasion for me. After 52 years behind the microphone I was a bit gloomy about 2002, to be quite honest. I am stopping commentating not because I want to, there is nothing I want to do more than go on. I've loved every second of it and I have had a wonderful life doing it but age withers and it's going to wither me and I want to go out well I am hopefully near the top, rather than coming down the other side. But one thing I didn't want to do as a result of this decision that I've imposed on myself was to loose touch with the sport and to loose touch with my fans. My involvement then with Orange is perfect, as it allows me not only to stay in touch with the sport but also my fans.

Q:
You're going to be involved with Orange. How long is this deal for?

MW:
It's a one-year deal with options at the moment.

Q:
Can you tell us a little bit more about the Sky Digital offer - what did they offer you?

MW:
I did have an approach - but I am not going there and I am not going there, not because I don't feel they will do a good job. In fact I would expect them to do a very good job. I am not going there because having reluctantly decided that I was going to retire from ITV - which was an organisation which I thought did a very good job and are very nice people, whom I enjoyed working with and so on - it didn't seem to be much point in going to another organisation that I didn't know when I had already decided reluctantly to stop commentating for pride reasons. I don't want to stop, but I think I ought to stop. I have been doing it a long time. I am going to get worse rather than better at doing it so didn't seem to be any point in going to another organisation, where it would be new to me and I was in danger of deteriorating well I was doing it. And so I said: 'Thank-you very much for asking me' but for that reason and because I had already committed to do so work for ITV - and you don't say you are going to do something and then don't do it - and because of these other things I thought I had enough to do with out taking something else on. So the short answer is I told them - no.

Q:
Are there any plans for you to attend any Grand's Prix this season?

MW:
I will certainly be at the British Grand Prix and I will certainly be at Indianapolis [for the US Grand Prix], because I will be promoting my book there. I may be at some of the others but probably not, because unless I have got a job to do - I don't want to be the old chap from the past, who is sitting there talking about how good it was in Nigel Mansell's day when people are trying to get on with there work. So probably not, but not definite, there is no reason why I shouldn't be at them, if I decide I want to be at Belgium I shall get up and go. What I am doing for Orange I can do from anywhere, I can watch a television set in Thailand and phone it in, if I want.

Q:
Is it possible you will do any commentating in 2002 for ITV, perhaps a special one-off appearance at the British GP?

MW:
Absolutely not - I mean... god forbid if James Allen fell over and broke his leg and ITV asked me to do it. I would all most certainly be flattered to do it. But it would only be in some remote circumstance like that. It's not something in my mind to do commentating again.

Q:
As the 'voice of F1' people in Britain will really miss you this season. Do you think James Allen, your successor, will get a fair shot in the commentary box with Martin Brundle? Will the public give him a chance?

MW:
I don't know... it is not for me to say. All I can say is James Allen is a very nice chap, a extremely knowledgeable chap, a extremely eloquent chap and he now has the opportunity to do what he has wanted to do for a very long time. He has wanted my job for a very long time and I don't mean that unkindly because it's been his ambition and he has now achieved his ambition and it's up to him to exploit.

Q:
You attended the Grand Prix party this week. What did you think of that?

MW:
I thought it was terrific. I thought last year's - which was the first was very good - and I thought this years was better as they have benefited from the experience of last year and how to do it better and they did. I thought the crowd, the attendance was good, I think all the seats were sold, and the ones that were empty were just the ones that had bought tickets and hadn't turned up, rather than not having been able to sell them. The music wasn't my idea of what music ought to be like, but we are all different. It was good to see Damon [Hill] and Sid Watkins, and I think the Bernies' which are awarded - the sort of Oscars of motor racing, which I was privileged to win one last year - are a great idea and I'd like to think they are going to become very important and meaningful - so all in all a very good evening.

Q:
The crowd, some 6000 people I believe gave you a very warm reception - how did that feel?

MW:
It felt marvellous, I came from the back of the hall and got a standing ovation and it's a very heart warming experience because when I picked up the microphone at a GP I know I am talking to people in Britain, Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Indian, Pakistan, Indonesian, millions and millions of people but you don't actually know what there like and what there like was there at the Albert Hall and it's very nice to meet them on a face to face, person to person basis and realise they are nice kind, decent people, enthusiastic human beings, who are interested in the same things as I am and for the same reasons and so it was very nice.

Q:
You are going to be involved with Orange - does this deal connect you in anyway to the Arrows team?

MW:
No - absolutely not.

Q:
What did you think of Arrows' decision to drop Jos Verstappen and replace him with Heinz-Harald Frentzen?

MW:
I think it was sad from Jos' point of view obviously, but - what I am going to say now is going to sound very hard and callous, and ruthless - but the fact is Tom Walkinshaw owns and masterminds Arrows, but he has got to do the best he can for his team, to enable it to win, in what is a gigantically competitive environment. It's not the first time a driver has been dropped and it's not the last time a driver will be dropped and it's not only Arrows who has done it. But from Arrows point of view they have ended up in a stronger position because I think Heinz-Harald Freznten is more likely to do well than Jos Verstappen. But that is not in anyway meant to be a criticism of, or adverse criticism of Jos Verstappen as a man, or his ability as a driver, because he is a very nice bloke and a bloody good driver. But there you are Tom wants Arrows to win.

Q:
Do you think it was unfair though - seems Arrows had done a deal with him last summer?

MW:
I don't know, and you don't know, exactly what the contractual situation was and there are obviously escape clauses in it or they wouldn't have been able to do it. But presumably they will be able to say - 'we refer you to clause 3B, which says that in the event of so and so and so and so we are enable to substitute a driver'. I don't know, but I imagine that to be the case. I am not saying it is a desirable or praise worthy situation, it is most unfortunate and very regrettable but equally understandable.

Q:
Looking ahead to 2002. Who do you see as the leading Brit?

MW:
Well who are they: Eddie Irvine, David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Allan McNish. Well not McNish - simply because he has no [race] experience of F1 and he is in a brand new team. Not Eddie Irvine because he is in a Jaguar and Jaguar seem to be in disarray and I can't see them producing a car that will do anything noteworthy, which I am sorry to say. So that leaves Coulthard and Button and obviously of those two the leading Brit is Coulthard, because - one: he has won races; two: he has finished second in the World Championship; three: he is extremely experienced; four: he is in one of the three best teams and five: Button's reputation is very much on the line; six: I expect Renault to be better than the Benetton last year but I don't expect them to be better than the Mclaren or the Williams or Ferrari. And that's about it.

Q:
Do you think this is a make or break year for Button?

MW:
Well yes I think it is, I don't think it is quite as 'make and break' as some people are suggesting, but given that Jenson was boy genius in 2000 - and I'm not saying that dismissively, because he was the boy genius and he worked wonders bearing in mind his lack of experience - but he worked wonders with a very experienced and competent team.

Last year though he fell flat on his face, because he was with a team that was in the process of changing from one thing to another, and because it had a new engine, which was unproven, the car itself wasn't very good, he was with a new team and was no longer supported in the way he was the year before, but this year things should be a lot better.

He's now got two year's experience and one of them was with a not so good team and paradoxically that is good experience. A bad experience can be good experience. This year the car looks a lot better; the engine will certainly be a lot better and he's got a year's experience with this, his second team. So I think he will do better and I think he could do better than [Jarno] Trulli. Whether he will do or not we will have to wait and see, but I am optimistic for Jenson and I think with justification, and I hope my optimism is realised because he is a extremely nice person and a bloody good driver and he deserves to succeed.

Q:
How do you see Toyota going?

MW:
Well again I don't know; but because they are a new team - not withstanding that they've got unlimited funds and unrivalled facilities - you can't expect them to do well. Look at BAR in there first year, they had a lot of money, excellent facilities, good people but they didn't have experience and Toyota haven't got experience and won't have experience and the only was to get it is to do it and that takes time. But I think they will work hard and will get experience and be successful in the future, because they've got to be. Toyota has made a gigantic policy decision and they are spending a huge amount in terms of money, they are Japanese and if they don't do well they will lose face and they have entered it for marketing and promotional reasons and they will want success. And they will do well but it won't be this year.

Q:
How do you feel about the demise of Prost Grand Prix?

MW:
Very sad because I like Alain Prost as a person and respect and admire him as a driver. Ron Dennis was right when he said: 'just because you are a good driver doesn't necessarily mean you are a good team owner' and in many ways you're unlikely to be a good team owner if you've been a good driver, there's only been two good ones [who have been drivers and then become good team owners..] Jack Brabham and Jackie Stewart. So I am very sad, but not particularly surprised, and I agree with Prost that he was very badly let down by France. However if Alain Prost had had different characteristics he might have done better, but he hasn't, so he didn't.

Q:
What's your take on the proposed new single-seater series being formed by ACEA - the European carmakers. Will it happen?

MW:
I don't think it will happen, because I don't think it is in the interest of either party for it to happen. Life is about politics and politics is about accommodations and making adjustments to your points of view and taking account of other blokes and it's in the interests of the manufacturers to have a well-run situation, and that's what we've got now. And I think Bernie [Ecclestone] and Max Mosley will get together with the manufacturers behind close doors and they will all emerge smiling and saying 'Peace in our time' and it will all be ok.

Q:
Finally tell us a little bit about your autobiography, which is due out in September?

MW:
It is my autobiography, it is about my life - not about Formula One only. I was lucky enough to have a very interesting childhood I think, my father motorcycled very successfully and I travelled with him, I was in the army during the war, a tank regiment and I fought against the Germans and did the link up with the Russian's. I had over 40 years in the advertising business where I was not unsuccessful and I have commentated on Moto-cross, Motorcycle trails, Motorcycle racing, Formula Ford, Formula Ford 2000, Formula 3, Formula 3000, Formula 5000, Formula 1, Sports cars, Touring cars, Power Boats, Cup Racing and it's all in the book.

Q:
Thanks Murray and I am sure I speak for all your fans when I wish you the best of luck for 2002 and beyond.

MW:
Thank you.