Sebastian Vettel must take some of the blame for the lack of fans at the German Grand Prix, not because of his recent dominance – which now seems to be a thing of the past – but because of his negative comments.
Following sell-out crowds at the last three races in Canada, Austria and Briton, the German race saw just 52,000 people turn up on Sunday, down 30 per cent on 2012 according to circuit adviser Katja Heim.
His recent negative comments about the sport, particularly one in which he labelled the sound of the new engines “shit” has turned German fans away, reckons Heim.
“It certainly didn’t really help that Sebastian in his frustration about the new F1 and his car gave loads of interviews about how bad it is now and that it’s not worth going there,” she told Reuters.
“As a four-time world champion from Germany, people believe him more than they would the sales people. So if he says there’s nothing any more for the fans, it’s not F1 like it used to be, that was 100% quite damaging.”
The Red Bull driver can’t shoulder the entire blame though as Heim joked that had Germany done as badly as England at the World Cup, then maybe people would have attended the race.
“For F1, it would maybe have been better if Germany had done an England and gone out in the first round. I really believe that.”
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