Well, it never had anything to offer. It had potential, but that is it.
It was disadvantaged from the off in that it didn't fit into the motorsport ladder, so was never taken seriously as a career step. To counter this it had to come up with something new. Sprint/Feature races are an old and tired forumla, as is the push to pass function. Because it was new and not a career step, it also attracted some god awful drivers who were trying to impress people to get a vault upwards - that had the downside of making the series look like a joke.
Despite that, and despite the spec cars, the series suffered from horrendous domination that made the Schumacher years in F1 look tame. Season 1, France won 13 out of 22 races. Season 2, Germany enjoyed a similar advantage. Come season 3 it was beginning to get more mixed but by that time the damage was done and they sold it to someone who clearly, like Peat said, is an idiot.
This is before you begin to touch on the terrible circuit choices, such as street circuits which can't cope with the cars. And of course the bunch of cancelled rounds too.
They also didn't exploit the "World Cup of Motorsport" properly. All the cars are built and maintained in the UK, and most of the team members are Brits, with the exception of only a couple of teams. It wasn't a World Cup anymore than Superleague Formula is actually Liverpool v AC Milan.
A1GP - Excellent idea. Badly executed by everybody who had a hand in its management. It is finally out of its misery.
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