Have you ever tried sleeping while watching a game of football on the television? It's impossible, because every time you close your eyes, and spend a moment in that no-man's-land between consciousness and a drunken afternoon stupor, there's a roar from the crowd, and you are snapped back to reality to see what's going on.

It's the same story with rugby, and even tennis. But Formula One is different. Once the cars have zoomed away from the line, you have an almost constant background din, as soothing, if you turn the sound down a bit, as the waves on a beach.

And you never hear the crowd oohing and aahing, partly because they would be drowned out by James Allen, and partly because there's never anything to ooh and aah about. As a result of this, and because you know who's going to win, you will be sound asleep by lap two.

The viewing figures for the re-run of the Australian grand prix, show that between 4.10pm - just after lunch - and 6pm, three million people were in front of their televisions. But they don't show - they can't - how many were in the land of nod. I know I was.

The important figure, for the future of Formula One is how many got up at 2am to watch the race live. And the answer to that is half-a-million.

Some of these, for sure, will have been night-watchmen who'd rather watch anything than a grainy CCTV image of the night. But most will have been the sport's true fans. And I'm sorry, but half-a-million isn't enough.

If the sponsors think that a mere five hundred thousand people are bothering to watch their money being turned into vapours and noise, they'll find something else to put their stickers on. Avocets and bees probably. And I can't blame them. With numbers that small, it'd be easier and cheaper to pull out of F1 and send the fans a tenner every week.

Worse, why would Weetabix spend its money on television advertising if the number of people watching would fit into a guardsman's hat? They won't.