Bernoldi praised for mature driving at Sepang

By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

ITV commentator Tony Jardine, has poured praise on the way that Enrique Bernoldi handled himself when coming under pressure from the recovering Ferrari of Michael Schumacher at the Malaysian Grand Prix. The Brazilian showed a mature performance in those few laps, and perhaps a taste for the future.

"I thought it was fantastic when Enrique Bernoldi managed to get past Michael Schumacher during the Malaysian Grand Prix and I've said for a while that Bernoldi is not a bad driver," Jardin said in an interview with Grant Williams from Sportal.
"Any of those 22 guys who make it onto the grid are amongst the very best drivers in the world at the pinnacle of motor sport.

"Bernoldi was good in Formula 3000 and he held his nerve and held his line at Monte Carlo when he held up David Coulthard last year which with it brought him a lot of criticism.

"The story went that had it been M Schumacher coming up behind him he would have seen the red in his mirrors and moved straight out of the way because he is known as the intimidator.

"Well he saw the red in his mirrors at Sepang and he held his line on what is a very wide track where there are lots of opportunities and different lines that M Schumacher could have used to get past him early on.

The Ferrari driver did manage to get past the Arrows, but a few corners later Michael left the door open under braking and Bernoldi clamly retook the position. This site was very impressed with the way that Bernoldi conducted himself on track, and it was a shame that a fuel problem ended his race early. "But Bernoldi managed to re-pass the world champion in great style and I think he enhanced his reputation," Jardine concluded.

In the opinion of this site, the critisism earned at Monaco last year was completely unfair. Bernoldi was defending his position in the race - why should he have pulled over to let Coulthard through, just because he is in a superior car !

Still that was last year, and going by that performance this site is expecting to see Bernoldi and the rest of the Arrows team a lot more on our TV screens for the remainder of the season.