It would not surprise me if they were down at least for quali as it is moved to a shit time for most people, but the increase in people watching the two sprint sessions on a weekend vs. people who actually watched practice is going to be a massive increase.

Getting the raw viewing data out of FOM is always going to be a nightmare, you'll need a TV network or huge sponsor who will have access to it actually leak it. Otherwise what we get from FOM in public statements, in the words of Lewis: this has been manipulated man.

I would be very surprised if we do not see a large decrease in viewers this year, particularly in all the races post Max tying up the championship so early and in such dominant fashion. This would have impacted COTA this year, that and the saturation of US hosted races. Time zones work in both directions, whats good for Europe isn't always good for the US and vice versa, the actual Sprint@COTA was on really really late in Europe this year so I would not be surprised time zone impacted viewers from Europe and beyond, but I doubt we will ever get proof of that.

FOM patted themselves too much on the back for being responsible for all of the growth in 21 when really an intense season long battle for the title that literally went down to the last lap of the last race has more to do with it that their gimmicky changes and low hanging fruit that Bernie couldn't be bothered to pick.