Guenther Steiner on why the country that produced Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel has seen a major decline in F1 popularity

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has shared an interesting theory on why F1 is not that popular anymore in Germany, a country that produced legends like Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. According to Steiner, it all comes down to the switch from free-to-air TV where the sport was broadcast to a pay-per-view model.

In Germany, F1 is broadcast by Sky Sports and it has a pay-per-view model in place which means that you have to pay for every race weekend. None of this was the case when Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel used to race in their prime and there was no dearth of German drivers in F1.

However, with the introduction of such a provision, the cost of watching the sport has increased exponentially leading to a drop in viewership.

According to Steiner, this appears to have played a major role in the drop in viewership.

“The people who don’t want to pay for Sky are the problem. I would put it this way: it is certainly a problem, because the German viewer is not used to paying for television. Several factors come together. One is that Germany is not a country where pay TV is in demand, because the content from free TV in Germany is very good, I must say," he was quoted as saying by PlanetF1.

“That’s why: Why should I pay when the free stuff I get is also good? Then comes the content and then, logically, people also have to say: I want to watch that and I’ll also spend money on it. But when you sell something, you have to make sure that it is attractive enough for people to pay money for it. You have to look at that, too. There are several things. But I definitely don’t want to say it’s bad," Steiner added.

The state of German F1 during Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher's prime

The state of F1 in Germany has gotten worse over the years from the heydays of 2010s. During that time when both Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel were racing, there was no dearth of German talent in the sport. There were drivers like Nico Hulkenberg, Nick Heidfeld, and Adrian Sutil who were part of the grid, all at the same time.

The number has continued to dwindle in the last few seasons. The last talented German driver who impressed in the junior racing categories was Mick Schumacher and no breakout star seems to be making an entry into the sport soon.