Michael Schumacher, the seven-time Formula One World Champion, has once again shown us why he has gotten out of touch with the rest of the world.
When asked about Juan Pablo Montoya's departure to NASCAR a couple of days ago, he said, "What do you see in Nascar? What is exciting about it? I can't see it running around in ovals."
In other words, he thinks NASCAR is boring.
It's a well-known fact that the TV ratings of NASCAR has kept on increasing, while Formula One has to resort to some amusing gimmick to stop losing audience, like the two-day qualifying last year, and the three-part qualifying this year.
Motor-racing fans love cars overtaking or even touching each other. Throw in some spectacular crashes will make it an even better spectacle. In NASCAR, where 43 nearly identical cars running bumper-to-bumper for hundreds of laps on the ever-dangerous ovals, action-packed racing is a virtual guarantee. The use of restrictor plate on super speedways is an ingenious (and successful) way to reduce speed and to bunch up the cars.
Now what do we have in Formula One?
Apart from the so-called "pit strategies" and the meaningless scrap between the Midlands and Super Aguris, you seldom see any action Formula One races. And I wonder if Schumi indeed finds circulating the tracks alone, as in the case of oh so many races, THAT exciting at all.
Perhaps Schumi doesn't think NASCAR is boring. Perhaps it's just another way to diss Montoya, with whom he didn't see eye-to-eye, since the Columbian's arrival in Formula One in 2001.
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