Eddie Irvine's in a rush. A big rush. He's just back in Dublin from Mugello where he was testing the new Ferrari car for the forthcoming Formula One season. Tomorrow he leaves for Melbourne where the first grand prix of the year takes place on Sunday week. Today he's paying bills so that when he next returns to his Dalkey base the electricity and phone won't be cut off.

Hectic, manic, frantic, crazy. They're the words he uses to describe his life at the moment. So you'd expect just about the last thing he wants right now is an interview. "No, because I love talking about myself," he says, grinning. "Ah, I'm just so used to it now, I don't think about it. Part of the job, y'know," he sighs.

So, did you spend the winter lying on a Caribbean beach, then? "Huh! Michael (Schumacher) was in his ski lodge in Norway for two months while I was running around Venezuela, France, Italy, you name it - I was everywhere doing PR work for Ferrari.

"It's impossible to get away from it because the situation with Michael is that he's got a very strict contract where he only gives them so many days for promotional work, so I've got to fill in all those other days - so my workload is probably a lot heavier than anyone else's in Formula One because I'm effectively doing the work of two drivers.

"So the winter was hectic - I was just all over the place for Shell and Marlboro, our various sponsors, and then I was testing in January and February, there was no time for anything else. I'd only nine days off in Antigua and then I went to Kitzbuhl for a few days and that was it."

Venezuela, France, Italy, Antigua, Kitzbuhl? Bummer. So does all this work (and so little play) make Eddie a dull boy? "If you need a racing driver as a mate you're a sad bastard," he was quoted as saying last year. So are they that dull?

"Well, put it this way - there are a lot more interesting people in the world than Formula One drivers, I find that any way." So they're not glamorous and exciting? "You don't know them the way I know them," he laughs. Are they boring? His friend Dominic, who's sitting in on the interview, nods furiously.

"We are," concedes Irvine. "I have a very wide range of friends, from very intelligent people all the way down to Dominic, and none of them is a Formula One driver.

"I just don't find them very interesting people and I like very interesting people. I've got a lot of friends who do very diverse things and it's much more interesting talking to someone who's doing something totally removed from your game, you see a much broader spectrum of life that way . . . and I'm the boring bastard who's sitting in the middle of these intelligent people."

Perhaps the fact that he doesn't find the company of his colleagues in the world of Formula One to be all that riveting might explain why he chooses not to live alongside so many of them in the tax haven of Monaco.

"Well, if you ever go to Monaco you'd realise why I don't live there, it's a very boring place - very boring. It tends to be full of people who value money more than life, because they all go there just to save tax, but you can't take it with you. When you're only coming this way once I think it's better to pay your tax and live properly. You couldn't pay me to live there."

So, instead of choosing the pleasant climate and the even more pleasant tax rates in Monaco, Irvine opts to make Dublin his home, not that he sees much of it. "I'm never here, I'm back about four days in the year, at the most. I just have a house in Dalkey and come here whenever I've nothing to do and just sit out there and relax. Then if I want a bit of nightlife the centre of Dublin's only 15 minutes away . . . 20 minutes legally, of course.

"But I only go out at night in Dublin because the traffic just does my head in, I can't cope. This is the world centre for traffic lights - Charlie Haughey must have been on commission for traffic lights' sales."

On the irritation scale only strangers who insist on talking to him about Formula One score higher than traffic lights. "I avoid strangers like the plague because it's amazing the number of them who don't even think that I don't need to talk about it every hour of the week. You make it obvious that you don't want to talk about motor racing, but they keep asking you questions so then you just gotta walk away. Make your excuses and leave."

So, eh, let's talk about Formula One. What's it like being Michael Schumacher's understudy? "It's the worst job in the world in a way, but it's also a great job because he's the best driver. People say I play number two to Michael but all the drivers play number two to him because he's better than everyone else. At least I'm in an environment where I can learn from him, I'm going to a very good school.

"I think I could beat anyone in F1, apart from Michael because he is a lot better. I've learnt a lot from him, and vice versa, but the things I've learnt from him have made me a much better driver. Okay, there are some things I have to do that don't help me to get a good result for myself, but, on the whole, I've got a very good opportunity to do well and this year, with the new car, I think I will have the potential to get some very good results."

Irvine, once described as the man who introduced road rage to Formula One, scoffs at any suggestion that the controversies of last season were bad for the sport, on the contrary he thought they made great press. "There are always controversies in F1, there have been since the very beginning - it's a sport designed for controversies because there are so many rules. That why the G . . . what is it . . . the GAA, there's never that much controversy there because there's no f---ing rules, except that you can't shoot any of your opponents. F1 is designed for controversy.

"The incident with Michael and Villeneuve in the final race was great press! What's better in a boxing match, a guy winning on a points decision or a knock-out? Jerez (where Schumacher collided with Villeneuve) was a knock-out, I thought it was great. A great way to finish the season, and most seasons finish in a manner like that, whenever it's been that close. Prost took Senna out in 1990, Senna took Prost out in 1991, Michael took Damon (Hill) out in 1995."

So has life changed a lot since he left Jordan for Ferrari? "Well I started getting paid properly for doing a job. There's no one who makes money out of Jordan Grand Prix other than Eddie Jordan," he laughs.

Still enjoy it? "Sometimes it's wonderful, but it's like everything, if it was wonderful all the time it'd be boring - sometimes it's hell, sometimes it's heaven. Gotta go."

Right, well best of luck in the new . . . oh, he's gone. Seems they don't call him Fast Eddie for nothing.