Bernie Ecclestone says “there’s no point” in F1 trying to reach the young generation of fans, describing social media as “nonsense”.

Concerns have been raised about declining television audiences and race attendances, with many teams struggling to find sponsors amid the rising costs of competing in the sport. However, Ecclestone feels trying to engage young fans is a mistake, as he wants to target “the 70-year-old guy who’s got plenty of cash” due to the sponsors already involved in the sport.

“If you have a brand that you want to put in front of a few hundred million people, I can do that easily for you on television,” Ecclestone told Campaign Asia-Pacific. “Now, you’re telling me I need to find a channel to get this 15-year-old to watch Formula 1 because somebody wants to put out a new brand in front of them? They are not going to be interested in the slightest bit.

“Young kids will see the Rolex brand, but are they going to go and buy one? They can’t afford it. Or our other sponsor, UBS — these kids don’t care about banking. They haven’t got enough money to put in the bloody banks anyway. That’s what I think. I don’t know why people want to get to the so-called ‘young generation’. Why do they want to do that? Is it to sell them something? Most of these kids haven’t got any money.

“I’d rather get to the 70-year-old guy who’s got plenty of cash. So, there’s no point trying to reach these kids because they won’t buy any of the products here and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe they should advertise with Disney.”

And Ecclestone described social media as “nonsense” which he can’t see being any benefit to the sport.

“I’m not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is. I tried to find out but in any case I’m too old-fashioned. I couldn’t see any value in it. And, I don’t know what the so-called ‘young generation’ of today really wants. What is it? You ask a 15 or 16-year-old kid, ‘What do you want?’ and they don’t know.

“The challenge is getting the audience in the first place. I say to some of these people who start this nonsense about social media, look at what tobacco companies tried to do – get people smoking their brand early on because then people continue smoking their brand forever.”

And asked about what is next for F1’s future, Ecclestone said: “I hope it settles down and we’re going to be able to retain the audience. We’re never going to grow it.”