F1 crisis: Mercedes dominance adds to 'spiral of negativity'

After another Grand Prix, this time in Austria, that failed to ignite the senses or attract much of a crowd to the Red Bull Ring, Formula 1 ringleader Bernie Ecclestone was forced to backtrack after apparently telling reporters he had been given "a crap product to sell".

Sunday's race was won by Nico Rosberg, which at least made a change from another victory for his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton. There was also a spectacular crash involving Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, which ended with Alonso's McLaren sitting on top of Raikkonen's Ferrari. Yet in the aftermath there were as many questions about the direction and future of the sport as there were about the race.

Writing in The Times, Kevin Eason laments the funereal atmosphere in Austria, but says F1 only has itself to blame. The sport has done itself few favours in recent years and the results were evident at the weekend, with "the crowd halved, the paddock empty and corporate Europe turning its back on what should be one of the most enticing of global sports".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"F1 has been on a slow slide, now evident in every corner of the paddock with disaffected teams and sponsors spurning the sport," he says. "It is no exaggeration to predict that the slide is towards the abyss."

Eason acknowledges that many fans of the sport regard him as a cynic but insists that he is simply a "mirror, held up to reflect the activities and mutterings of the participants".

Branding the sport a "game of moans", website Planet F1 blames predictability and an excess of regulation for the crisis. "Mercedes' dominance is the sporting equivalent of flaying a rival alive," it says.

The German team has been on pole for 19 straight races and now have 21 one-two finishes in recent seasons. "In this environment of Merc dominance, questions swirling around the complexity of the current regulations have become more pointed... F1 viewing figures in 2014 were down across the globe and few would predict an uptick in F1 viewers in 2015."

Even Sky Sports, which broadcasts F1 in the UK, appears concerned. Commentator Martin Brundle writes: "Everyone is now looking at F1 from a negative perspective... Silverstone will be a full house next week, but the crowds were significantly down at the Red Bull Ring last weekend and this current spiral of negativity will be very difficult to reverse."

F1 needs an "overhaul of the regulations and event format" he says, but it might not happen unless a big team like Red Bull quits, or some smaller teams fold.