Mercedes parade and horrible engines send F1 popularity tumbling

Despite the German Mercedes engines and team dominating F1 in 2014, and despite a German driver (Rosberg) battling for the F1 title, the German F1 fans are quickly finding F1 boring. All that money they are spending on those horrible sounding hybrid engines is sending fans headed for the exits and the TV channel switched to something more exciting, such as basket weaving 101.

F1 "is experiencing increasing resistance from fans in Germany," according to the SID. A representative survey, conducted by Nuremberg-based research institute puls, found that 31% of Germans who have a general interest in sports "do not care about F1." A further 39% said that "their interest in the series has decreased." Only 6% reported their interest in the sport increased, while 24% said nothing has changed.

German free-to-air TV channel RTL reported its F1 viewing numbers "decreased during the '14 season." The 19 races attracted an average audience of 4.36 million viewers and had a market share of 28.2%. In '13, RTL's F1 broadcasts obtained a market share of 31.9% as an average of 5.28 million viewers tuned in. SID