is single seater racing *really* in crisis?

[bella]

this post in the f2 thread got me thinking:

Originally Posted by JohnMiller

No it isn't.

It isn't a problem in the FR Eurocup. 43 cars?
It isn't a problem in the European F3 Open. 27 cars?
It isn't a problem in the ATS Formel 3. 21 cars?
It isn't a problem in FR3.5. More drivers than seats.
It isn't a problem in FR BARC. 25 cars?
It isn't a problem in Star Mazda. 25 cars?
It isn't a problem in ADAC F Masters. 20+ cars?

To name just a few series that have concentrated on offering value for money, not just low budget/low quality racing.

as john mentions, the eurocup today has 43 cars testing. barc had 25 in the opening round. the fr nec series has "nearly 40" cars entered for round 1 this weekend. the fr alps series had 32 cars competing at monza for round 1.

even if you take out the eurocup, that's in the region of 60-70 of the much grumbled about current chassis competing in individual series, plus another 25 of the fr2000 cars competing in barc alone. they're all on various budgets, in various teams with different kit and staffing levels.

meanwhile, british f3 has (as discussed elsewhere) less than 15 cars, f2 has 17 entries, fr uk ceased to exist, fford uk has 16 entrants at the first round, 7 of which are the new ecoboost thing, and intersteps has 10 as per round 1.

what are we doing wrong in the uk? are we actually doing anything wrong or is it the economic conditions? is it that racing in the uk on a cost basis is higher than on the continent? do we need to man up and accept that the reason other series have good healthy grids is by racing in more than 1 country? is that something we need to consider?

let's try and stay away from individual series bashing here, let's try and look at the bigger picture.