After just one year, empty seats in the stands at the Red Bull Ring suggest that Austria's love affair with the sport is already on the wane, this at a time the German Grand Prix has been dropped from the calendar. Elsewhere, Silverstone is offering fans a 44% discount on tickets for the British Grand Prix, an event that during the golden era was sold out well in advance.

As fans continue to bemoan the current state of the sport, which has also come in for criticism from some noticeable names within the industry, Red Bull's Christian Horner believes that Ross Brawn is the man to take F1 forward.

Be it Mercedes dominance or rules which have resulted in drivers on a twenty-car grid receiving twenty-five place penalties, fans are unhappy, and the knock on effect is that the sport is losing sponsors, the lifeblood of the sport.

Whilst Bernie Ecclestone insists there isn't a problem the fact is F1 needs sorting out and Horner believes Brawn is the man to do it.

"We need someone independent, someone not currently involved, like a Ross Brawn, who understands the business, understands the challenges to write the specification for what a Formula One car should be," the Briton told the Press Association.

"We have gone too far and it is too complicated and we need to bring it back to basics." he continued. "Formula One has a huge amount of following around the world but we need to a better job. The cars need to be more of a challenge. There needs to be more competition, we don't have that at the moment. There are a lot of discussions for 2017 at the moment but can we wait for 2017? We need to accelerate some ideas and decisions need to be made so people know what's coming.

"We need to simplify some of these rules. Taking penalties and then further penalties in the race, drive-throughs, for example, is too complicated. It isn't right that we don't know what the grid sheet is until 10pm on a Saturday night after qualifying.

"The cars are too easy to drive and you don't see the drivers working as hard as they were a few years ago. You never hear a driver complaining about his neck these days.

"The Strategy Group is pretty inept," he concluded, "and it needs the commercial rights holder and the governing body to decide what they want Formula One to be and then to put it on the table in front of the teams and to say, 'These are the rules, here is the entry form'."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Brycevr, 23/06/2015 11:29

"Yeah, that's just what they need ANOTHER opinion.
I stuck with F1 last year, I had not missed a race since the first F1 broadcasts in Australia until this year. I've watched 3 GP's and am not particularly keen to watch any more. I did though do a marathon for the Le Mans 24hr and get excited about the Bathust 12hr. I've gone to sportscars for my viewing and ever important sponsor dollars. Lots of luck Ross, it won't be easy cleaning up someone else's mess, particularly a mess as big as F1 is now with everyone telling you how to clean it up in their favour. The championship is worth very little now and becoming a prize for the best clown in the circus. Not the best driver or team."

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2. Posted by nico, 23/06/2015 8:58

"need more competitive teams at the top as well as a fairer distribution of the money
so
every team to get an equal share of half the money , the other half being distributed as prize money
ross brawn to mclaren as team principal to replace bouillier

then the smaller teams would have enough money not only to survive but to have a chance to grow into big teams !"

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3. Posted by Kkiirmki, 23/06/2015 0:25

"Over the last couple of years there's been a downturn in seat numbers and it's generally been at the circuits/countries where there has not been a great deal (or none at all) of motor-sport history, China, India etc. But now we're talking about circuits like the Osterreichring, I'll take the A1 Ring but I'm not calling it the Red Bull Ring. Surely this is a sign that things need to be done? The power to make/agree to changes needs to be taken out of the teams hands, no unanimous support for any rule changes, and given to an independent body. I'd suggest the FIA but they're just as ineffective.

This season is turning out to be even more rubbish than last years."

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4. Posted by GordonW, 22/06/2015 19:40

"Why use someone honest, experienced and wise such as Ross Brawn when Bernie could have someone like Flavio Briatore who could bring Sepp Blatter style football corruption across to the sport? This would allow any country in the world to "buy" the rights to stage a Formula One (TM) race.... What do you mean, it's been done already???"

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5. Posted by stoney, 22/06/2015 19:30

"I must admit, I'm even now becoming bored with the moaning about F1. It was quite cathartic at first. Now it's just as processional as the races itself...

Less chit chat and more action, please!"

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6. Posted by ape, 22/06/2015 19:10

"Red Bull should start to agree to a fairer sharing of the revenue money between ALL the teams so there is more competition and not only between the cartel teams.
"

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Horner: F1 should recruit Brawn as advisor

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