F1: turmoil as entire sport seems to be on a path to nowhere

With money from banks that have had state aid a potential problem for next year, with the global economy standing little chance of a significant upturn, and there still not being any agreement between the teams whether they will run an FIA-supported series or something of their own plus the ludicrous prospect of Michael Schumacher shoehorning his somewhat more chubby than before frame into Massa's car F1 is starting to look almost as farcical as the debacle at the Hungaroring when a broken cable took out the timing at the end of qualifying, leaving drivers to wander around asking how each other had done.

With only nine cars in the session, due to Massa's crash, Button said he thought he was tenth. It was shambolic.

But not as shambolic as Formula one itself has become.

The teams spent millions on developing a Kinetic Energy Recovery System or KERS. It's been such a waste of time and money that it's being cancelled at the end of this season - if there is still a Formula One to cancel it from, that is. It was all done at the insistence of the FIA.

The FIA has reduced itself to a laughing stock over the past two years or so with its ridiculous decisions over discipline. And race stewards have not impressed either. Even in Hungary in the past few days, two decisions favouring Ferrari helped Raikkonen to a second place. Does anyone know why the stewards decided to investigate his aggressive driving off the line after the race? And does anyone know if they actually did so?

The removal of all in-season testing means that replacement drivers are thrown into cars they have never driven in real life until they arrive at a track on a Friday morning. So last weekend we were treated to the new boy, Torro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari doing a fine job - but standing little or no chance of doing anything other than staying out of the way of the other drivers and propping up the tail of the field.

And Ferrari are now in the same position: they have a test driver but test drivers aren't allowed to test either, at least not in this year's car although Ferrari do have their own track on which other cars do run. So whoever gets into Massa's seat for the European Grand Prix will have a very fast car but no real experience of how to use it. Renault, thinking about dumping Nelson Piquet, have to weigh his mid-field performance against the certainty of pottering around at the back.

Sure, there are other teams waiting to join F1 next year. But the question is how many of them will actually have the funding in place to run a whole season? Or perhaps even to start?

If BMW, Toyota, Renault and Honda think it's not good enough value for money, then what global brands will?

Buried in BMW's decision is a hint that a major reason for the withdrawal is the failure of F1 to crack the US market. With no US races, the farce at Indianapolis in 2006 and little US TV or print media coverage, manufacturers are not seeing a return in that important market on their F1 investment. And with no US connections amongst the drivers after Red Bull dumped US champion Sebastian Bordais last week, the reason for US media to even mention F1 is reduced. Maybe F1 needs Schmacher back to grab headlines, even if his reputation may be undermined by an unwise return.

As it stands this morning, even though BMW's decision was telegraphed several weeks ago, there are so many clouds hanging over Formula One that they amount to the one, big, question: it's not what shape will Formula One be next year, but it's will there be Formula One next year?

And if it's a pale shadow of itself, no longer the absolute pinnacle of technological and driver skill, would we want it?