interesting question. wonder if this is something the site admins look at. age of users, which subforums they use, how much time do they spend in each subforum etc type analytics. if this is info they feel is ok to share i would be interested in looking at it but then again i am also interested in talking about this without any facts...well because facts often get in the way of a good conversation!
for me this is the only F1 forum i post on because the knowledge level of the other users is such that its a lot easier to have more nuanced conversation...again for me, part of that stems from the usernames being featured more prominently so it feels more like a conversation among friends/people that i know. posting in social media places has too much of an anonymity aspect to it that puts me off if that makes sense.
but i do also check out those types of sites. the Reddit F1 subreddit for example is very heavily followed and with a great variety of topics/threads but at the same time its much harder to follow the conversion. too many people all talking across one another (which i dont like so i guess that makes me old as well
).
that said, that site is extremely popular and seems to have a younger skewing (or more new to the sport users) user base. anecdotal but i say that because topics tend to focus on things people have seen on other social media platforms and dont tend to have the same historical knowledge in the comments....so for me its more of a quick resource to see whats being posted on twitter/instagram.
also i think this site rewards people who have been watching for longer much more then the more anonymous social media driven sites do...i suspect that it can be quite daunting for young or new fan coming here for the first time.
anyways, im also of the belief that most if not all long established sports are struggling to find/attract young viewers. from what i read attendance and viewership is down across the board which is no doubt a function of more choice, increasing costs, and even the burden of history. i dont think this is unique to F1 at all.