Statistically, that can't be a true statement or racism would be dead when it is actually alive and well all over the world. There are plenty of racists that watch F1 and post on fchat. It's just a fact of life. But do I think stewards make decisions based on color? I doubt it. Maybe he was just trying to be funny though...stupid thing to say though I agree.
Ehhh - obviously he had the option of leaving. This happens all the time in pro sports and no one has an issue with it. When your time is up, your time is up. It would be more disingenuous to continue on without bringing your A game. Bottas is not charismatic, and I can guarantee you that Lewis is not interesting in spending his limited free time talking about sedans. So who exactly would you tap?
Most contracts have a clause whereby either side has the right to terminate it within a given period of time and some other basic requirements so not biggie Nico just went thru that and done it is.
There are still people on this forum who haven't accepted how smart Rosberg was to announce his departure after winning his WDC, and accuse him of weakness and disloyalty towards Mercedes. Of course he had to sign a contract to guaranty himself a drive for next year if he needed to, but having reached his goal by the end of this year, there was no need to honour it. There must have been written clauses to cover than eventuality, so it's no big deal. But what I find incredible is the scorn against Rosberg for an alleged breach of contract, when teams generally treat their drivers badly when they want to replace them, and nothing is said about that.
That's the point I'm making, Rosberg has quit, he left Mercedes and F1 to spend more time with his family. He's an ex-driver, he's in the past, gone. So why on earth is he now wanting to claw back onto Mercedes coat tails and retain some contact after proclaiming that he's putting his family first. One minute he's signing a new contract, next minute he's quitting, only a few weeks later he's wanting to become a brand ambassador for the company who name was on his F1 contract. Is Mercedes going to launch a advertising campaign with the heading, 'Mercedes, the car for the eternally undecided' ?
Did MB asked him to be ambassador? Or do you think he came begging? I believe the former. He is the MB WDC by the way. The average MB doesn't care about F1, Rossberg can tout all the MB attributes.
Hey wife I was thinking of buying us a new MB, but that Rosberg guy (Who ever he is) just quit Driving some kind of MB race car. That seals it we won't buy one now!!! LOL.
I'd rather see Mercedes represented by Rosberg than Elton any day, I want to think of Mercedes as a premium option, not a wannabe gangstas drive by wheels. Mind you, a drive by to collect maccy D (McDonald's) isn't the same as a proper one I guess!
And conversely, how many car do you think they will sell on the back of Nico Rosberg? Next year he will be forgotten with all the Mercedes news being about their current line-up, not that driver (who ever he is) who used to drive for Mercedes, took the prize and buggered off... He is their past. He's no more an ambassador to Mercedes than he is a burden.
And I'm sure from a marketing and PR perspective they would rather be represented by a determined winner who is making headlines, not somebody who won in the past and whos largely forgotten. As soon as the first wheel is turned in the 2017 season, Nico will be consigned to history from a publicity perspective.
He only won the championship a couple of months ago lol - sounds like a win win scenario - Hamilton will be publicizing the brand through his drives, and Rosberg will give Merc a brand ambassador who is intelligent and non divisive. That seems like a reasonable two pronged PR strategy. Best, Sammy
That depends on the headlines he's making...... Mercedes PR if they at all professional won't be wanting too much association with a whiny, arrogantly ignorant dipstick who claims it's all him, and nothing to do with the car when he wins, yet it's the team that ****ed up when he loses I buy Mercedes among other cars, but I would be very offended if it was suggested that my purchases were in any way as a result of any connection with Elton. On the other hand, I'd be totally happy with the association of the gentleman that is nico Rosberg, definitely someone you would prefer to identify with. Somehow, I'm guessing the majority of the Mercedes buying customer base aren't backwards baseball cap, golden toothed muppets that are characterised by Eltons social media followers in the main
Same here! I just don't understand why that guy Surveyor keeps hammering at Rosberg and tries to sully his character. Nico is one of the most likeable guy in F1. In a hypothetical world, I would prefer to be welcome in a showroom at MB by Nico Rosberg than by Elton Hamilton, any time !
One might ask how many cars any company sells on the back of any driver...Because if you buy a car purely because of a driver being employee of this company you should reconsider. To be honest I would not even buy a Braun shaver for a few bucks just because Vettel is in a commercial not to talk about a car for many thousands of Euros/Dollars. And for the other driver making headlines: the story of the last weeks was how Lewis did not feel respected by the team and that there are problems that are not solved yet... Does this make any Hamilton fan want to buy instantly a Mercedes or is it rather counter-productive in this context? In the past one had not really the impression that Hamilton is "in love" with his team and the marque so why should he make anyone want to buy this car?
I think the celebrities making commercials are more to give the marque a positive image in general rather than really selling a single product. And regarding Rosberg being "past": most of the "ambassadors" are people from the past...I think that "ambassador" is actually a job description for someone who represents a marque without any other active function. As far as I remember Schumacher was ambassador for Ferrari after his first retirement as well and for Mercedes after his second.
I also don't understand why 'some guys' keep hammering at Lewis trying to sully his character either. I guess you meant to say Nicole WAS one of the most likeable guys in F1? (maybe so) He is no longer,has ceased to exist,probably sat on the couch pining for the fjords,he is a ex F1 driver! By quitting like he did he went from hero to zero in a lot of peoples' opinion. Enjoy your hypothetical meeting with Nicole at the MB showroom, i would rather watch some proper F1 drivers actually doing their stuff e.g Max,Seb,Alonso,Kimi,Ricci,even Lewis! Bottas will be a much tougher competitor for Lewis this year
I hope bottas is allowed to compete this year, then if that happens, we can hope he does well. My guess is Toto will have it seen up so his charge is merely back up to Elton. I'd rather be optimistic that Mercedes screws up their car this year, and ferrari somehow get it right and blow them away..... although I suspect the brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson have less of an imagination than me in that regard
Every driver leaves F1 one day. That appears so difficult for you and others to fathom. Sad. They are all future EX F1 drivers. 1 WDC or 7 makes no difference. Its a WDC champion - period. I wont miss Nico, never missed Kimi or Schumi. They leave and the sport moves on. Life. Not at all difficult to grasp this.
+1 European Champion Rudolf Caracciola was Mercedes ambassador until the mid 50s, although he won his last race before WWII !! He used to tour NATO bases in Germany representing the Three-Pointed Star and selling quite a lot of cars among US officers stationed there, who liked to have their Mercedes delivered by the pre-war ace.
I think it makes sense for Mercedes to use Rosberg for promotional work - the bane of the F1 racing driver's obligations is the promotional work, they do it because they have to, not because they want to film commercials or stand around shaking hands or waving at crowds of people in a store. Mclaren are/were supposed to be one of the worst for their heavy promotional workload for the drivers. So now Mercedes gets a double bonus - they have a sophisticated, gentlemanly World Champion to do promo work, with no race weekends to get in the way of his promo workload! Perhaps that was part of an agreement on financial settlement for Nico's retirement from his race contract, maybe a penalty was waived if he agreed to the promo work. With my comments above and William's note above - perhaps Rosberg in a showroom is more presentable, but I never get the impression that Rosberg is actually a car guy who loves cars - sure, he's a F1 racer and now champion, but that was a career and competitive goal. I've never seen any articles about Rosberg being involved with sports cars or events outside of F1... whereas Hamilton, like him or hate him, is a car guy. His collection of interesting current and vintage cars is well known, during his off time he does fun car events like the Gumball stuff for the sake of enjoying the cars, he got ticketed in Australia a few years ago for excessive acceleration or some such stupid charge when he was in a Mercedes loaner leaving the track. Forgetting the showbiz personas, if you wanted to hang out with a car guy - would you pick Rosberg or Hamilton? I get the impression that Rosberg will be driving a family minivan for his personal transport choice going forward...
