How are you enjoying the season so far?We've got four people vying for the championship which is great – it makes it all very exciting and unpredictable.
It’s been the best for a very long time that’s for sure. It’s been unusual and exciting.
How was your recent return to the commentary box?I did the European Grand Prix for Radio Five Live to cover David Croft as his wife was having a baby.
I enjoyed it immensely but I was apprehensive beforehand.
While I was sure nothing would go wrong, you never know.
It’s been five years, I was feeling out of practice and things do change in that time.
But I was very happy in the end. It was like riding a bicycle.
What have you made of Lewis Hamilton's brilliant start to his career?Lewis Hamilton is a phenomenon – what he’s achieved so far is unprecedented.
Nobody has come into the sport and done what he’s done.
But in Alonso he’s got a tremendously, skilful, experienced and, now, extremely-irritated team-mate and they will go at it hammer and tong to the end.
I’d love to think Lewis can triumph, but whether he does do it remains to be seen.
Is the rivalry between Hamilton and Alonso a good thing? It depends from whose point of view.
From the team’s point of view, the main priority is to win the constructors’ championship – which is ironic as the public couldn’t give a toss about it.
If you’re an owner you want to maximise your points – so it helps if your two drivers are both vying for the championship.
But if you want the drivers championship, it’s bad news as they’ll be taking points of each other.
Should all teams give equal importance to their two drivers?In Michael Schumacher’s day it was quite clear in his contract that he was No1 and if conditions dictated, the other driver, who was poor old Rubens Barrichello, had to defer to him.
From the public’s perspective, McLaren boss Ron Dennis’ policy of having two equal drivers is great.
So is Alonso right? Does Hamilton get preferential treatment?I can see Alonso’s point of view – it’s easy for me to say this as I’m not involved – but I believe that point of view is wrong.
I know Ron and his team, and they are paranoid about giving equal treatment to their drivers and letting them fight it out on the track.
But Alonso is a proud man, as well as a double world champion, and he would have expected to be No1 in the team.
So when some Johnny-come-lately turns up and is allowed by the team to beat him, it would be disturbing at best and unacceptable at worst.
How can the team deal with such a divide?Ron has a good dilemma with two world championship standard drivers in his team.
All he needs to do is to work out how to keep the peace between them – like he had to with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost – unsuccessfully!
What's impressed you so much about Lewis Hamilton?Lewis has now demonstrated that he has this relentless, selfish, ruthless, killer instinct to triumph.
He also has all the physical attributes of good reaction, fitness and youth, as well as being a mature, intelligent man.
But the thing that impresses me so much is his maturity, dignity and intelligence.
He has an amazing ability to deal with the political problems and unbelievable hype that surrounds him.
Even in Nigel Mansell’s day it probably wasn’t as much as Hamilton – he’s a phenomenon.
He deals with it in a relaxed and authoritative way which you wouldn’t expect from a 22-year-old newcomer.
Who is responsible for his amazing start?Lewis Hamilton, talented as he is, wouldn’t be where he is if it wasn’t for what McLaren and Ron Dennis have done for him.
Ron was prepared to put his money where his mouth is. He could see Lewis Hamilton was good, but there’s a lot of good people around.
Somehow Ron spotted he was worth a punt – which is alleged to have cost £5million in terms of the preparation it has taken to get him through the ranks.
Hamilton has had privileges that I can think no other driver having had.
He’s almost what you’d call the first manufactured Formula 1 driver.
Do you think the spying scandal has tainted the sport and this year's championship?I don’t think it has overshadowed things too badly.
I don’t think the general public are as worried or obsessed by it as a Formula One nutter like me would be.
I know all parties involved and it has been intensely interesting to me.
All sport is so professional and so money orientated these days.
Like doping in the Tour de France – most sports have something in the closet that they are not hugely proud of and usually they are symptomatic of human nature.
This certainly is – greed is involved.
And you're now involved promoting hearing aids. How did you lose your hearing?I have a hearing loss for two reasons – one because I’m old and also because I’ve been exposed to loud noise all my career.
Being able to do something about it with experts has been great – they even set me up with special aids for when I’m track side to help me do my job.
I have a very good team behind me.
Credit: SunSport