Is motorsport sleepwalking to doom?

There's a famous quote, attributed to mass-production car pioneer Henry Ford, that states motor-racing started five minutes after the second car was built.

When you think about it, that wasn't so long ago. Homo Sapiens have been around a couple of hundred thousand years, so in that context a century and a third is not enough to build an unbreakable relationship. Humanity's relationship with the motor car is not immutable, much as some within motorsport might have convinced themselves that it is.

It's essential those involved in its governance and operation in particular do not neglect outreach to ensure the next generation of potential motorsport fans engages with it - and that means being willing to adapt.

Motorsport runs the risk of sleepwalking towards its own doom. And not because of external factors - worlds change, society adapts, evolve or die - but because too many involved have a one-dimensional and complacent view of the sport's place. Just because it might be the epicentre of your world, this doesn't mean it is for everyone else.

That might seem to be a curious message for the editor of Autosport magazine to be putting forward. But it lies at the very heart of the battle raging to ensure motorsport continues to thrive in one form or the other in the long term, which is surely what any enthusiast wants to see?

The sport is not on its last legs, in many ways it is genuinely thriving. But only by keeping your eye on the future can that continue to be the case. You can argue compellingly that motorsport has had its peak and, while still not too far from that high point, is on the downward slope. But it doesn't need to be the case.

Millions still watch F1, attendances at events of all categories are still good, automotive manufacturers continue to see the value of being involved and there are plenty of knowledgeable, determined enthusiasts around. But that's a state of affairs that will not always be the case if neglected. And it's all about the world's changing relationship with the car.

Despite off-track quarrels, F1 still draws big crowds across the world © LAT

Road cars have increasingly become black box commodities. Today, an average teenager does not get a first car and spend time tinkering. The more mature enthusiast will generally not be able to spend their time messing about with their latest Audi A4. There are some exceptions, but certainly not for the average person in the developed world.

Likewise, those who do drive are constrained by the rules of the world and safety measures. That's a very good thing, for there are still too many life-changing accidents involving automobiles today even with those measures, but it does eliminate some of the joy of driving that was once accessible to anyone with a set of wheels.

None of that is a good or a bad thing: progress is amoral and unavoidable. But what it does mean is motorsport has a very different relationship with the average person. Dieter Rencken wrote an excellent column on this very topic in 2012, which is well worth reading.

The upshot of this is that the idea of driving fast for sport, and interest in the mechanicals for their own sake, is no longer a part of day to day life. Instead, you have to actively seek it out.

And yet, many don't seem to grasp what this really means. It's inevitable that people assume that others experience the world in the same way, but if people increasingly relate only to the car as a functional, lifeless object that gets you from a to b (and which will become less and less interactive as driverless cars establish themselves), they would no more think of using cars for sport than they might food processors or toasters.

Still, many involved with certain categories of motorsport will say this is not the case. I'm bombarded with people demanding coverage for their various racing activities and there's nothing at all wrong with that.

I've been an amateur competitor of zero accomplishments myself, and they are right to be enthusiastic because it's one of the most enjoyable, challenging and sociable ways to spend your spare time. But don't convince yourself everyone is automatically interested in what you are doing, especially when the barriers to entry are, financially in particular, high.

Viewing figures, and the quality of coverage, vary across motorsport © LAT

There is also a serious problem with people making spurious claims about the levels of interest in certain motorsport activities. People chuck around absurd viewing figures using weasel words like 'reach' to give the impression far more care than they actually do. And somewhere along the line, many buy into this as reality.

We get told of circuits with crowds clearly beyond the actual number in attendance (admittedly, this has become less of a problem now), television audiences that would rival the average royal wedding and online engagement that portrays a whole world in love with motorsport.

The trouble is, if you buy into that then why would you put much effort into outreach?

When new initiatives are introduced - Formula E for example - there is widespread snobbery about it.

There was nothing wrong with being sceptical in the build-up to it getting going, or in questioning its medium-term future even as it is well into its second season.

But given it is offering high-quality drivers and genuine technical diversity and interesting circuits that take motorsport to the fans, it's idiotic to continue to dismiss it out of hand. Yes, audiences remain small - like so much of motorsport - but it's clear from Autosport reader interest that there are plenty of hardcore fans who do have a keen interest in the series. So it's probably a good idea not to treat it as if it's a bad thing.

Equally bad, of course, would be to overlook its weaknesses. The cars are not spectacularly fast, which is a bit of a problem although they still require skill to drive and do look good on the tight streets, and the technology is a long way off being mature. These two points are, however, connected, and are at the heart of what the championship is trying to achieve.

Likewise, the attitude towards motorsport gaming is curious. So many take the emergence of eSports lightly when it's probably the best form of outreach there is today. So how about harnessing it?

The divisive Formula E has embraced gaming and will soon have a driverless support series

Some are trying, and it's great to see plenty of pukka racing cars turning up on games like Forza Motorsport, as well as events like the recent Formula E Prost versus Senna 'race off', but the surface has been barely scratched.

The challenge motorsport faces is that it does have to adapt to the world it exists in. Things change, technology evolves, so we're not going to get Ronnie Peterson drifting his Lotus through Woodcote at Silverstone on crossply tyres, and constant attempts to frame motorsport regulations to try to recreate the past rather than conceive a different future will not succeed.

But we might be able to zero in on why that was so spectacular and find a way to point motorsport in a direction that creates the same response among onlookers. And that's at the heart of things: the spectacle.

Those involved in motorsport must take improving their product seriously. Last year, one major championship (which shall remain nameless) incensed me with some of the most turgid, uninspired and boring coverage of a major event that had all the ingredients to be fantastic.

From that, the only conclusion was that those involved in the series were having a great time and assumed everyone else would enjoy it through them with minimal effort being made. And this was not at a level that did not justify investment in the TV product.

And there is the heart of the problem. Motorsport is complacent. It believes it has a place in the world that will never change, that the universe owes it a living, that simply being on television is enough at a time when competition for eyeballs is more competitive than ever.

Well, it doesn't.

Yearning for a return of 'golden', bygone eras achieves little © LAT

Motorsport is incredible, always has been and I hope always will be. But it has to be willing to evolve or, on a long enough timeline, it will die. Those in the middle of it need to recognise what its strengths and weakness really are. The people who hold the rudder of the various categories around the world that act as showcases must do so not through the desire to satisfy their own egos, but as custodians of something special.

There are plenty of individuals that get this, who invest their time (very often unpaid) in outreach, in staging events and in keeping motorsport functioning, but it's down to everyone involved to do that. Only then can the sport continue to be tripped over and engaged with by future generations of fans, drivers, marshals, stewards and all the other roles that have to exist to keep motor racing functioning.

But just shouting everything is brilliant is as counter-productive as declaring everything terrible. As is the tiresome one-upmanship between various forms of motorsport that feels like it is becoming more prevalent.

The sport is still healthy and in a good place, which is why now is the time to consolidate that popularity. But it can't rely solely on the relatively small number, who do have the need to do that in mind, to carry motorsport into the 22nd century single-handedly.

So perhaps rather than being so convinced about the worth and the interest in whatever branch you might be involved in, and the need of everyone else to do the legwork in promoting and pushing it, it's time for outreach to be a bigger part of what everyone in motorsport does.

Let's get motorsport out there so that it really is front and centre.