LOCAL Formula One followers expect the world’s top-tier motor sport to find its prime back at the Shanghai International Circuit, which will stage the 2016 F1 Chinese Grand Prix from today until Sunday.

The race marks the 13th time Shanghai will be hosting an F1 Grand Prix. Local organizer, Shanghai Juss Event, said the sport had already established a stable fan base in Shanghai and China when it was first brought to the city in 2004. Activities around the circuit over the race weekend have made the event popular among some local families as well.

A total of 145,000 people visited the three-day event last year, significantly lower than the attendance record of 2012, when 185,000 got tickets. Under pressure to keep the elite sport popular, F1’s governing body introduced a number of changes for the new season, especially the qualifying format, which left some drivers angry, fans confused, and decision makers embarrassed.

Drivers including four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, former champ Jenson Button and world champion Lewis Hamilton voiced their dissatisfaction over the current leadership and management of the sport, calling the officials’ decisions “obsolete and ill-structured.”

This year’s qualifying system, which saw drivers knocked out at timed intervals during the three sessions, was approved in a hurry just ahead of the season’s start.

What was meant to add excitement resulted in drivers being eliminated while sitting in the garages in the final stage rather than battling for pole on track as in the past.

F1 governing body FIA and Formula One Management (FOM) decided to give the new format another try in the second Grand Prix in Bahrain, but little changed for the better. With its third stop in Shanghai, last year’s qualifying was officially reintroduced.

“At the unanimous request of the teams in a letter received, Jean Todt, president of the FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone, commercial rights holder representative, accepted, in the interests of the Championship, to submit a proposal to the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council to revert to the qualifying format in force in 2015,” an FIA statement read.

The change will apply for the rest of the season. The 2015 format, which had been in place since the start of 2010, will see the six slowest cars eliminated at the end of Q1 and Q2, leaving 10 cars to fight it out for pole in Q3, with their grid positions based on their best lap times at the end of qualifying.

The frequent rule changes have led to discussion among local F1 followers and experts.

“It’s good that F1’s governing body is working on introducing changes for the sake of future development,” Li Bing, Shanghai Television’s veteran F1 commentator, said. “However, the failed new qualifying rules were as complicated as a thesis, which would do no good in attracting new fans. In my opinion, the real solution to make F1 more exciting to watch is to narrow the gap between the teams.”

Local Formula E driver Ma Qinghua, who used to be the reserve driver of F1 team Caterham, shares a similar opinion.

“Cars from other teams are 0.5 to 0.6 seconds slower per lap than cars from top teams, which is huge,” Ma told Shanghai Daily. “Due to the big gap between the teams, they are not on the same competitive level. The qualifying rule had been changed to provide more fortuity for the smaller teams and encourage them to stay on tracks longer in qualifying. However, the smaller teams are well aware of their positions, while the bigger teams can always make use of strategies and maintain their advantage.

“We don’t need a complicated rule to make the qualifying exciting to watch. However, under the current circumstance, it is very difficult,” added Ma, who also thinks it’s becoming more and more difficult for F1 to attract fans under the age of 30.

“F1 is not as attractive for young fans as it used to be, and I think one major reason is that the sport has put too much emphasis on technical improvements in recent years.

“Teams are involved in the development of energy recovery systems, kinetic energy recovery systems, batteries, and so.

“They are extremely costly and become burdens for the smaller teams, while doing little to improve lap times of the cars. Some of the techniques don’t need to appear in F1. After all, speed is what matters most for F1, and that should be purely about the ability of cars and their drivers.”

Mercedes and Ferrari have been the top-tier competitors in the previous two Grand Prix, though the latter needed to work on stability a bit. Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and Hamilton clinched a 1-2 finish in the opening Australian GP. Ferrari’s Vettel also made it to the podium after placing third, but his teammate Kimi Raikkonen retired in the pits on lap 21 with flames flickering from the car’s airbox. In Bahrain, it was a 1-3 finish for Rosberg and Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen finished second while Vettel pulled over on the formation lap as a plume of smoke came from his engine.

Ma thinks the title race in Shanghai would still be between cars from Mercedes and Ferrari, given the situation of the first two races, but he added that the new teams (Manor and Haas) also deserve some attention.

“The world of F1 should work on rules that help make the cars run faster, raise the competitiveness for the smaller teams and bring the excitement for the sport back,” Ma said.

The new rules for the new season were after all not a total failure, at least not for F1 fan Li Yintao, who has been following the sport for 20 years.

“Teams are given three sets of tire choices this year — one more than last year, which added the possibility of changing strategies for the teams,” Li, an architect in his mid-30s. “Different strategies used by different teams can add uncertainty for the races … At least I did not fall asleep while watching the previous two races.”

Li said he noticed that F1’s governing body had made compromises over the years to help cut costs for the smaller teams and for environmental protection reason, like the limitation of engine numbers, engine power, and the cancelation of fuel charging during the race.

“I suppose F1 decision makers are aware of the necessity of cutting the gap between teams. However, Mercedes has simply been too strong in the past. It took Ferrari three years to close the gap, not to mention other teams.”

As for the decrease in the number of F1 fans, Li said there might be other reasons too. “Nowadays there are lots of exciting entertainment choices for youngsters, much more than 10 or 20 years ago. But I don’t think FIA should ingratiate itself too much with fans.

“A sport should have its independent ruling system instead of being too easily affected by commercial factors. Bernie Ecclestone did well in the promotion of F1, but interfered too much in rule making.”