McLaren boss and FOTA chairman, Martin Whitmarsh, believes the sport needs to do more to promote itself.

Speaking to reporters in Shanghai, the Englishman pointed to the numerous empty grandstands as he suggested that as the sport moves in to more and more new territories it needs to sell itself in order to bring in the fans.

"Formula One is used to going to venues that know and understand Formula One and want us," he said. "I'm not blaming anyone because we're all part of it, but we're not good at promoting our sport in new territories and I think you've got evidence of that not just in China."

"We've got to work harder at it," he continued. "Fortunately we still have a fantastic worldwide television audience but we need to work harder at circuits that are in new territories to promote the sport.

If you go to downtown Shanghai and look for all the promotions going on for this event, I suspect you would struggle to find very much," he added. "I'm not a sports promoter, I'm just someone who works for a Formula One team but it strikes me that we've got to do much more to promote our sport, develop it, invest in its promotion than we do."

The Englishman also believes that the sport ahead of its return to the USA, the sport needs to learn from past lessons.

"The USA does not need Formula One, we need the USA," he said, "and I think if we just plonk ourselves down there and believe that America is going to reignite its enthusiasm for Formula One, I think we are wrong. I think we've got to work harder than traditionally we've had to. I think we (FOTA) have got to engage better with the commercial rights holder to accept that we've got to do more than we've done in the past."

Then again, other than the lack of promotion, as Des Kelly recently pointed out in the Daily Mail; "weekend VIP passes for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in October will cost upwards of £2,600.

"To put that into context," he continued, "the average Indian employee would have to work for two-and-a-half years just to be able to afford one ticket. It's a perverse pricing structure.

"I can't wait to see how much general admission is when Bernie Ecclestone's circus parks its trucks on Indian soil for the first time," he admits. "It looks like only Slumdog Millionaires need apply."

There's the real world, and then there's Planet Paddock.