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Christian Horner has called on Bernie Ecclestone to end Formula One’s growing crisis as the entire sport hits the panic button.

The complex hybrid formula has been declared an unmitigated disaster as fans desert the sport in their droves.

Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix is set to be staged in front of a crowd that has almost halved in 12 months.

While Lewis Hamilton’s boss launched a robust defence insisting F1 would never be like “The Fast and the Furious” drivers are slating the cars, sponsors are deserting the billboards, while fans say the racing is just not good enough.

Double champion Fernando Alonso said last weekend’s 24-hour Le Mans endurance race was more interesting than F1.

“You drive within 0.3secs of each other for two hours. Being able to drive the same car for two hours is something we have forgotten in Formula One,” said the Spaniard.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen called for the 200mph machines to be ‘more dangerous’. “When I first arrived in F1 it was more exciting for everyone. It really was the top but that was a long time ago,” he said.

(Image: Getty)

“We must do something to make watching F1 more exciting, and a little more dangerous.”

While Mercedes insist there is no crisis, their own overlord and triple champion Niki Lauda painted a very different picture. “F1 has basically been regulated to death down the years,” he said. “Even the start is now fully automatic.

“In the past you used to wet yourself the first time you got in an F1 car.”

Even controversy-shy Jenson Button admitted the cars are no longer the demanding beasts they used to be.

Champion Lewis Hamilton mounted a defence of his era asking: “When has F1 ever had wheel-to-wheel racing? I enjoy the racing from the cockpit.”

But even he admitted he wants the roaring engines – the sound of F1 – back.

Ex-Red Bull racer Mark Webber summed up global feeling: “All the drivers I’m talking to are disappointed what’s going on with the cars, the lap times. It’s just not stimulating for the drivers,” he said. “And it is rubbing off, the fans can see this.”

(Image: Charles Coates)

Ecclestone himself has admitted the sport is in chaos and hemorrhaging sponsors.

His phone may play Ennio Morricone’s whistled theme tune to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly but lately the news has only been ugly. Until he can wrestle back control from the teams who run it, he is powerless.

Circuits are feeling the pinch as fans vote with their feet. Only twice in the last 14 years has the four-day crowd for May’s Spanish Grand Prix been lower: 189,000 from a 2007 peak of 354,000.

Montreal promoters, usually so open, were too embarrassed to reveal their figures. Despite a German champion last year, and Mercedes domination, Germany’s F1 race was scrapped.

And the daddy of them all, the legendary Monza, is in talks to take turns staging the Italian Grand Prix with Imola.

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With the sport raking in an estimated £2billion, serious questions are being asked as to why Ecclestone and the sport’s owner CVC don’t use any of their £400m windfall for marketing.

Circuit owners Red Bull are predicting a race-day crowd here in Austria down 40 per cent on last year’s 95,000 sell-out, making it a certain loss-maker.

With his No.1 team unable to find a competitive engine and unlikely to even make the podium this year, billionaire boss Dietrich Mateschitz, revealed this week he is “falling out of love with F1”.

That is serious news when he is the biggest investor in F1, and world motorsport, to the tune of more than £300m annually.

Toto Wolff, boss of champions Mercedes, insisted: “There is no crisis. Children think you should be going backwards through the chequered flag like they do in The Fast and The Furious because that is spectacular.

“It is clear that the existence of phones and iPads means you will lose audience. But in some major markets like the UK and Germany we are one of the very few sports who have maintained or increased the market-share.”

(Image: Mark Thompson)

Horner’s reply is stark: “Toto has got his blinkers on. He’s got to be careful because he’s got to have someone to race. And an entertaining race at that.”

He denied Red Bull’s disenchantment is anchored to their fall from grace. In 18 months they have gone from four-time champions to being lucky to make the podium all year. “Forget our issues as a team the show is not where it needs to be,” he said.

“Why aren’t people coming? The product just isn’t exciting enough. One team is dominant. Rules are too complex, cars aren’t dramatic enough, racing isn’t dramatic enough. We need more wheel-to-wheel racing.

“Bernie has eyes on everything and he certainly is concerned. The top guys – Bernie and Jean – need to sit in a room with CVC, not involve the teams and decide what they want F1 to be.

“It needs to be done yesterday, for 2017 it is already late. It’s like we’re a high street shop in a prime location but we’ve got the wrong product in the window.”