Volkswagen Director: MotoGP is above F1 as a show

Volkswagen Group director Bernhard Gobmeier has fired an ominous warning shot across the bow of as he he outlined the problems facing Formula 1, which he believes cannot compare to MotoGP and World Superbikes when it comes to entertainment and spectacle.

Speaking to journalists in India, Gobmeier said, "Formula 1 is on a dangerous path. It is expensive. Most of the teams, apart from the big four, have financial problems. And tracks cannot pay what they are asking for."

"Due to its expensive nature, they are walking a very dangerous path in my personal opinion. We see it everywhere. Mercedes has over 1,500 people working on the F1 project. That is not even considering the suppliers, though it is not so much."

"It is probably 2,000 people on two cars. You should consider how expensive wages are in England and how expensive material is."

"In America, they have cost control on their minds. They manage it well. In Europe, there are a lot of different categories. In some of them, cost control is really good. But, F1 is completely out of range and so is the WEC."

These sentiments are particularly significant in the light of manufacturers ditching WEC projects, with Mercedes ditching their long-standing DTM programme, to shift their attention to the fledgling Formula E series which is supposedly more relevant to the future of motoring and substantially less expensive.

Gobmeier, who was General Manager of Ducati Corse and closely linked to the Italian company's MotoGP programme also believes that the Formula 1 'show' needs to be improved to attract sponsors.

He argued, "The number of sponsors is going down. The big sponsors, like the cigarette companies, are not there anymore. The small sponsors are also reducing. The number of sponsors is going down and so are the spectator numbers. At the same time, the cost is increasing. Something is not fitting there. They have to make the races more spectacular."

"MotoGP is above F1 from the show point of view. It is 100 times better. There is no comparison. MotoGP, its supporting races and World Superbikes are way better than F1. Theoretically, MotoGP has the potential to commercially capitalise on its popularity. And they do. We have Ducati in our group and we can see what difference in sponsorship can be achieved."

"Ducati is achieving the biggest sponsorship. Even Porsche, Bentley, Audi do not achieve such big sponsorship. Ducati is special and comparable to Ferrari and the sponsors get real value. They do good activation at the races, both in terms of media, hospitality, programmes and other things. The car companies are not so good in that," added Gobmeier.