Is the media to blame for the current negativity surrounding F1? Kate Walker suspects the problems lie elsewhere...
Formula One is sunshine and flowers, otters holding hands, and every picture of a predator raising cute fluffy prey as its own. This sport is a happy and wonderful place of sunshine and flowers.
That's the message that we the media have been asked to deliver. And while it's true that, as theoretical influencers, journalists have the potential to sway and shape public opinion, it is also true that in an increasingly media-savvy world, interested readers take information from a variety of sources and then form their own opinions. People are funny like that.
In terms of positivity, F1 has got a lot going for it. It's continuing to make massive piles of money for a very small and select group of people. We have yet to run out of wealthy countries hoping to use us as a springboard to global recognition. Formula One can also boast a record-breaking number of key stakeholders making public statements that denigrate or disparage the sport they represent, and if that's not a record to be proud of...
Sarcasm aside, attempts to blame the media for highlighting F1's ills is a convenient and lazy get-out for those people unwilling to tackle the sport's issues head on and to take responsibility for their part in the situation, no matter how minor.
As a journalist, I take responsibility for a lot of hand-wringing pieces about the state of the sport in recent years. But, as a journalist, it is my responsibility to report on the story as it is. At the start of 2014, I wrote widely about how - while the noise was different - I found much to enjoy in the then-new power units, and celebrated the level of performance and increased efficiency the sport's engineers had managed.
But because I am but a lowly commentator on a global sport, the tens of thousands who encountered my positive stories were vastly outnumbered by the millions who sat up and listened when Sebastian Vettel, Bernie Ecclestone, and Luca di Montezemolo all publicly complained about or criticised the engines, effectively (and in one case literally) calling them "s***".
Whatever any one single journalist attempts to do to tell a positive tale, the opinion of a lowly individual counts for nothing when stacked up against that of a triumvirate composed of a multiple world champion driver, the then-chairman of the most famous team in the sport, and the man referred to by all and sundry as the "F1 supremo".
If F1's stakeholders don't want the press reporting bad news, perhaps it would be wise to stop rubbishing the sport in public and on the record. The opinions that get shared, the stories that go viral, are not the opinions of individual members of the press. As a reader you may like my sarcastic approach, or enjoy Maurice Hamilton's yarns, but the stuff that gets you talking online or in pubs isn't our take on F1, it's the comments made by those who have genuine influence and the power to wield that influence.
So while it's nice to think that my mighty pen (keypad?) is enough to topple Formula One from its position of "Global Sporting Behemoth That Isn't Football Or The Olympics" it is the duty of those who keep crapping on the sport to stop doing it, and not the duty of journalists to ignore their comments so that press conference attendees can feel more comfortable for half an hour 19 times a year.