While Sunday's somewhat processional Spanish Grand Prix - especially with its overlong coverage of the exploits of local heroes Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz - was a good enough incentive for some to switch off and head out into the sunshine... or watch a repeat of Columbo on another channel, fans in Italy and Brazil have been abandoning the sport for altogether different reasons.

None other than Chase Carey has admitted that fans in the home of Ferrari are refusing to pay after coverage went exclusively to Pay-TV broadcaster Sky this year, while interest in Brazil has waned following the retirement of Felipe Massa.

"TV viewership in the first four races is down a touch," said Carey, according to the Independent. "Sort of down mid-single digits.

"The down is driven by two factors," he continued, "really two countries. Italy, where we have moved platforms from probably being more free to a bit more pay, so that has probably had the biggest impact.

"Brazil is a country without Felipe Massa racing. He was our Brazilian driver so that has an impact on viewership there. Actually, the majority of our countries, take the top 20 countries, the majority of them are up but the impact in those two markets brings it sort of down mid-single digits."

F1's Global Media Report reveals that 77.5 million viewers tuned in to F1 in Brazil in 2016, making the south American country the sport's biggest TV market.

With 32 million tuning in to F1 in Italy, this brought the sport's total viewership for 2016 to 390 million.

A change to the manner in which the figures are calculated, meaning the totals are now more accurate, saw the total audience decline to 352.3 million in 2017 however.

F1's increasing disappearance behind a pay-wall has led to viewer numbers falling by 41.3% over the last decade, a number that will surely increase when the sport becomes the exclusive domain of Sky in the UK next year.

As with most other sports, Pay-TV broadcasters are willing to pay the big bucks for the sports they want, as evidenced by Morgan Stanley's revelation that Sky Italia is paying £98m annually - 33% more than when it shared coverage with free-to-air channel RAI.

Sky's exclusive deal with F1 for the UK is said to be worth £110m annually, however, many are unlikely to make the full switch for a number of reasons, including not being able to afford it, the very principal of paying for something which has traditionally been free or even the refusal to hand their hard-earned over to Rupert Murdoch.

Despite the continued claims on social media that they do it all for the fans, the teams are unlikely to speak out for at a time the prize pot has been hit by Liberty's continued spending, they still share 68% of the sport's profits... so the TV deals are much needed.

There remains confusion over coverage of the British Grand Prix on TV, because coverage of the event has to remain free-to-air.

Then again, with the Silverstone event currently set to disappear from the calendar after next year, perhaps race fans in the UK will have even more reason to seek alternative ways to spend their weekends.