Oliveira was speaking of his experiences at Trackhouse Racing’s NASCAR facility in Concord, North Carolina, prior to last weekend’s Americas Grand Prix.
Admitting he knew very little about NASCAR prior to his visit, he says he gained a greater appreciation of the series and the intricacies of it that go far beyond drivers simply turning left.
When asked about this, he noted that MotoGP could do with opening up to fans in this way as he feels they are not getting an accurate representation of how difficult it is to ride one of these bikes on TV.
“When you get inside of a sport you get inside what it means, and you understand it’s not as simple as it looks on TV,” he said.
“We could use a bit of that in MotoGP also.
“I think people who can come and watch us live, they can appreciate that it’s difficult.
“But not from home. I think it looks too easy from home nowadays.”
Commenting on his time at Trackhouse’s NASCAR base, five-time grand prix winner Oliveira says he was surprised at the complexities of the stock cars used in the series.
“We got a nice insight into what NASCAR racing really is about, and really positively surprised about it,” he noted.
“I got to drive the NASCAR car for a pitstop, so it made my day. No [I didn’t know much].
“For me it was like guys inside of a car, they drive left corners all the time. That was it for me.
“I really had no idea of the complexity of the balance of the car, the aerodynamics of the car and how little they can do technically to the car but how big of a work this means to the teams in terms of disassembling the frame, putting every part together, measuring everything to the laser detail practically.
“For the drivers as well, we got to drive the simulator and you can definitely feel the difficulty that [there] is to be competitive.”
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