Without a doubt, Renault's executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, is one of the most knowledgeable men in the pitlane.

However, comments he made at Hungary over the weekend seem to indicate just how out of touch Symonds and the rest of 'Planet Paddock' is with the real world.

Talking about the current qualifying system, Symonds said: "I've always advocated that if we want to know what to do, we should be asking the public."

All well and good, however, he continues: "We should not be asking race fans who are going to watch qualifying anyway. What we should do is go out on a Saturday afternoon while qualifying is on and ask the people in the street, in the shopping centres 'why aren't you watching qualifying, what is wrong with it? Why aren't you watching racing?' Those are the people whose opinion we need.

"The die-hard enthusiast is going to watch it, whatever. We want to get new people in, not just make it better for those who are watching."

Pat, no disrespect but it is your core audience - the die-hards - that you must worry about, for if they drift away, and it is happening, Formula One is in serious trouble.

The average person on the street - 'man down the pub', if you will - doesn't understand the sport, it's too complicated and remote. What attracts 'the public' is crashes, glamour and babes, more or less in that order.

Provide entertainment and they'll look in from time to time, however it is your core audience that you must protect, and sadly, you are as guilty as anyone of driving them away.

A few years back we had the traditional qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday. However, on a number of occasions - most notably Britain - a wet Saturday session meant that Friday's times couldn't be beaten so the cars opted to remain in their garages. The people in the stands waited patiently, as they always do, however it was the damage to TV viewing figures that caused the FIA to respond by abolishing Friday qualifying.

Then we had the Saturday sessions, and once again the teams exploited every loophole in their search for an advantage. It wasn't long before teams discovered that it was pointless coming out until the last thirty minutes of the session, again, a nightmare for the TV audience.

The rules were changed again, with qualifying once again being run over two days, this time to a one-by-one 'hot lap' format. Although this wasn't nearly as popular as the 'good old days' when Senna, Prost, Hakkinen or Schumacher would come out for that final blast, it was a lot better than what we have now. What we have now is tedim.

However, there's no need to go out into the shopping centres to ask what's wanted, after all, most members of the public will find it as impossible to agree on an issue as the team principals.

Look around a few forums and message boards, see what the fans have to say. Some of them are relatively new to the sport and their only experience of F1 is via TV, while others will have been following F1 since the year dot. However it is these core fans that the sport must hold on to, the rest will follow.

Do it the other way round, and F1 will indeed be in serious trouble.