A couple of things are looking decidedly ugly in motorsport - the TV ratings for V8 Supercars and Michael Schumacher's Formula One comeback.

On the V8 Supercar scene Jamie Whincup, champion the past two years in a Ford Falcon, is proving just as dominant, if not more so, in a Holden Commodore.

He's with the same team, Brisbane-based Triple Eight Race Engineering which goes under the moniker Team Vodafone at the tracks, and it is again showing itself as good as any sedan racing outfit in the world.

This is a Holden-versus-Ford-only series still, at least until the end of next year, but Ford can't take a trick.

Three Falcons were excluded from race results last Sunday night over a technical irregularity.

Holden has won all eight championship races so far this season - Whincup six and Toll Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander the other two.

But the championship's bigger worry is its TV ratings.

These have been on the slide for quite some time, but now they have taken a steep dive.

Saturday's race at Hamilton, New Zealand, drew an average of 235,000 viewers in Australia's five major state capitals - 24.68 per cent less than the 312,000 for the same race a year earlier.

Sunday's race had, we believe, an average 232,000 viewers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - no figures were visible at our usual source for Adelaide and Perth, where the telecasts were disrupted by the Seven Network's AFL commitments.

That 232,000 in those three key cities was 18.6 per cent less than the 285,000 for the same race in those same cities a year earlier.

The next two rounds are at Ipswich's Queensland Raceway and rural Victoria's Winton - circuits that are geographically important to the championship but where the racing draws the poorest TV audiences of the year - certainly it did last year.

Just two weeks ago V8 Supercars Australia launched what it calls its Car of the Future - rules intended to open up its series to other manufacturers, provided they come with a V8 engine.

Before it gets to that era in 2012, V8SA, with its telecaster Seven, has a big job ahead of it to restore its traditional act.

Meanwhile, almost a quarter of the way into the F1 season Schumacher sits 10th in the world championship.

He began with a sixth place in Bahrain. In three starts since then his record has been 10th, did not finish, and 10th again in China on Sunday.

At every GP this year he's been outshone by his young Mercedes teammate, Nico Rosberg.

In Shanghai the seven-time world champion and winner of 91 GPs finished almost a minute behind Rosberg, who hoisted himself into second place in what is an ultra-competitive title race.

After Shanghai the so-often-supreme, seemingly untouchable Schumacher was disconsolate.

"There were some good emotions, but there were unfortunately too many bad emotions," he told the BBC.

"Quite honestly, I think all weekend didn't work out for myself.

"I had a nice battle with Lewis (Hamilton) at some point, some nice kissing to each other (cars touching as they diced).

"They (the McLaren team, whose Jenson Button and Hamilton finished first and second) have done it.

"Even congratulations to Nico, who made it up to the podium, so at least one of us (in the Mercedes factory team) scored good points."

Schumacher is having difficulty adapting to this year's intermediate tyres, used when tracks are between dry and drenched.

"It is a new condition ... slightly different to what I know from the past and you have to pace yourself dramatically to keep them ‘alive' for long enough," he said.

"It's a new experience for me."

Things are a little better for Australia's Mark Webber, although there are danger signs.

His Red Bull Racing was badly caught out on strategy by the weather conditions in Shanghai.

Webber finished eighth and teammate Sebastian Vettel sixth after they started from the front row of the grid.

The McLarens came through from the third row of that grid - Button coolly, strategically, and in further evidence that last year's world title was no flash in the pan; Hamilton, as so often, far more spectacularly.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa tumbled out of the championship lead to sixth, on 41 points - 19 behind Button.

Webber is eighth on 28 points - and in danger of losing touch with the leaders unless he banks a good haul of points quickly in the European races coming up.

Red Bull's RB6 is a super car, so it's possible.

It's up to Webber to get the job done.