Lack of Overtaking Not a Problem, Says Schumacher

Formula One does not need changes to improve the show for the fans, according to World Champion Michael Schumacher.

The Ferrari driver, World Champion for the last four years, has won nine out of ten races so far this season, which has been marked for the lack of excitement at the head of the field.

Former World Champion Nigel Mansell said earlier this week that Formula One had become a turn off. Schumacher, however, said the lack of overtaking was not a problem and claimed Formula One does not need to change.

"I have a different point of view," said Schumacher ahead of the British Grand Prix. "You have plenty of overtaking in motor cycling and you have sometimes none or few in F1. And if you look at the worldwide viewers, what they are more interested in - it's soccer and F1.

"If you could guarantee to have overtaking, maybe it's not so exciting anymore, because people think 'OK, sure, he's just going to overtake him - it's normal'. Here it's not normal and they just wait for it.

"So you can have different views on it and, I'm not sure... in the past three-four years we have done quite a few changes to the regulations to help either the media, the show, whatever. And that's the problem, there is no such 100% rule to satisfy everybody, it doesn't exist.

"So I think you'd better stick to the principle of motor racing, which has been pretty straight forward, uncomplicated, easy to understand for everybody, and interesting obviously to everybody - otherwise I can't explain why we have more and more viewers over the years, every year."

Ferrari have been champions for the last five years and look set for another title with eight races remaining in the season. The Italian squad have scored twice as many points as Renault, second in the Championship.

Despite his total dominance of the sport in recent years, Schumacher believes there's still the excitement of seeing who manages to finally beat Ferrari.

"Formula One is just Formula One, it has always had its phases of domination from a team, domination from a driver, and in a way - some people may not agree - it's interesting for some to find out when and who is going to be the team or the driver to beat us," he added.

"It's just the point of view you have, of where you look at it, of what is the interesting matter."