Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes are so far ahead of their competitors in this year’s Formula One World Championship that there is almost no doubt one of them will be crowned the winner. For some fans, the lack of a real contest among the teams might make the remaining seven races — including the Singapore leg that is to be held from Sept 16 to 18 — somewhat dull.
Of course, the stakeholders of Formula One will not agree. “I can imagine it is boring for people watching, but for us trying to catch up, it is far from boring,” says Cyril Abiteboul, managing director of Renault Sport Racing in a recent interview in Singapore. “We cannot be held responsible for the lack of interest in the sport just because [Mercedes] did a fantastic job.”
Yet, it does appear that ardour for Formula One has been flagging in recent years. Global TV viewership of the races has come down from 600 million in 2008 to just over 400 million last year. Some have also commented about a recent rule compelling the Formula One teams to ditch their 2.4-litre V8 engines for 1.6-litre V6 hybrids that hardly get hearts racing.
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