Flavio Briatore has echoed the comments of Bernie Ecclestone, saying that the sport he once loved is "broken".

Ecclestone has received a backlash after claiming that Formula 1 is "the worst it has ever been".

"This Formula 1 is broken, it's a broken business platform," the former Renault chief told Italian radio Rai Gr Parlamento.

Ahead of a 'last chance' meeting in Geneva where proposed sweeping rule changes could be nixed, F1 supremo Ecclestone had declared that he would not currently watch the sport as a spectator.

"One of the biggest problems of formula one today is that it has no more appeal to the audience," Briatore agreed. "The more the budgets increase, the more the technology increases, the more you have races that are not interesting

"F1 is incredible technically, but I do not think about F1 as a race but as a technical exercise and that is not of interest to the viewer. It must be entertainment, about the gladiators, but it is a world championship for engineers now.

"In my time there were 10 to 12 recognisable drivers, now only two or three would walk into a restaurant and be recognised. We have lost the stars and the glamour."

The flamboyant Italian's solution is to wind back the clock to when F1 was more about the drivers who decided "who wins and who loses".

"You have to change the rules and make them more simple, with cars that are 90% similar, costs 70% lower, and stop giving 70% of the revenue to the top teams with the rest getting the crumbs.

"We need to return to Formula 1 as it was 20 years ago."

The 2016 Formula 1 season gets underway with the Australian Grand Prix on March 20.