I guess we can agree to disagree on certain points based on our own preferences. I don’t even watch the races anymore and that’s mainly because it’s not shown on TV in my country unless you pay a subscription. I do read about them as I’m interested and I watch clips on YouTube, like the Hamilton/Albon incident. I do think the racing is dumbed down and adding false features to encourage overtaking and super reliable engines has ultimately reduced the appeal for a lot of people. Less people are watching F1 these days for a number of reasons. The last I looked they’d lost over 20m global viewers and questions should be asked why this is IMO. Teams struggling to get investment and sponsor interest tells us all we need to know.
The move to pay TV around the world, prices going up, and failure to harness the power of the internet for 2 decades explains the drop in viewers. You can't go from everyone having access to a tenth of the people having access, and having to pay extra for it and maintain the same numbers.
Ignoring the actual wheel to wheel racing (which I maintain ins't any worse), a lot of other things are. The tracks have less personality - are you going to pay to watch them go race in India on another generic stamped out track? Or do you want to see Nurburgring?
The cars are largely all the same - partly because of regulations, and partly because of the amount of manufacturer involvement. Do you want a screaming V12? A whine of a V10? The roar of a V8? Well who cares what you think - Renault and Mercedes don't want that because it isn't good for buisness. They want quiet little hybrids that they can pretend are green and eco and other marketing terms to sell road cars. In 1994 nobody cared about manufacturers - it was Williams vs Benetton and Hill vs Schumacher. Sure Renault and Ford badges were on the car, but it wasn't a manufacturer battle. The engines did not get to dictate the entire shape of the sport - which is now what's happening. F1 is attempting to recoup the loss of 20 million viewers by finding the cash elsewhere - Mercedes and Renault are willing to throw money at the sport, and in exchange, the sport has allowed them to call the shots. And that's why the engines are super expensive and super reliable too. It doesn't look good when an engine blows up.
You want to fix F1? Drop the manufacturers. Simple as that. It sounds mad, but F1s best times have been when private teams ruled the series. And this applies to all motorsport - BTCC and WEC both allowed manufacturers to call the shots too much. And then costs got out of hand, the manufacturers left and the sports died. And lets be honest, we're on the verge of losing teams like Williams and McLaren right now - we're close to a major issue with F1, and it's 100% down to the engine problems.
You want F1 back to glory years - decouple it from the idea of road car technology. Sailing doesn't feel the need to pretend it's relevant to the shipping industry. So lets drop the idea of F1 being marketing and technology development for road cars and have it go back to being a proper sport. How do you get the manufacturers to sod off? Mandate rules they won't like. "Ok chaps, starting 2022, the new engines are V8s, V10s and V12s, and you can have a turbo or NA if you want. You have 100kg of fuel to last the race - work it out" (Basically old Group C fuel regs). Mercedes, Renault and Honda won't build those. That's bad for business. They'll leave and be replaced with companies like Judd and Gibson. And the prices will be cheaper, since the underlying tech is simpler and not being bank rolled by manufacturers.
Give F1 back to the teams, and not manufacturers and suddenly a lot of problems are solved. On track action is fine. It's literally everything around it that's the problem. But it won't happen - because Mercedes and Renault bring too much money to the sport. F1 won't take the short term hit for the long term gain. Exactly what the ACO did with WEC, and what IMSA is currently doing with the main series.
