Hello everyone, I'm back. Can't post in P&R for another 90 days so let's talk F1. Leclerc has no chance for the championship this year. He and Sainz should be 1 and 2...instead they are going backwards. Binotto has to be fired, and all his strategy team with him. But you can't do that during the summer break...the whole team needs to have time to come together. That will have to happen in the off season and include development of the new car and getting the confidence of the drivers...if they even want to stay with Ferrari. But right now they are both damaged goods, so who would really want them. Red Bull's drivers aren't going anywhere. Neither are the guys at Mercedes. McLaren and Alpine are doomed to be mid pack contenders. Just as Haas and Alfa will be in the lower third of the grid. Red Bull doesn't need Alpha Tauri anymore...maybe they'll sell it to Andretti. Williams and Aston Martin bring nothing to the game. They could disappear from the grid and no one would miss them. That leaves Ferrari, and whatever poor fools drive for them, in a perpetual third place.
Correct. Ferrari would not have waiting lists for new car deliveries if their sales were dependent on F1 success
Ferrari sales are insignificant in the global world. It's a niche market. Some large car companies sell millions of cars every year and don't spend any money on racing.
Racing may be a luxury for Ferrari, but there are many brands around the world that race somewhere and are not luxury brands nor can afford eccentricities. Renault comes to my mind. Every racing team (OK, except Ferrari and other old ***s) is backed by marketing studies, business plans and that kind of crap.
Yes I know, but you have a brand like KIA who sells 2.8 millions of cars worldwide, and don't race, SAIC (China) which owns several makes like MG, etc ... and sells millions without a racing program, or Geely (China) which owns Volvo, Proton, Lotus, Polestar, LEVC, Lynk & Co with a total production well above the million; they don't race, and have no problem selling their production. These manufacturers are in the same league as Mercedes in production numbers. Beside that, you have Alfa Romeo who produdes only 51K cars, and get involved sponsoring a F1 team! Do you thing that improves their sales? Going motor racing was a good commercial platform when the car industry developed, to advertise the product, show its reliability, endurance, reliability, etc;;; That's how races started with cars close to showroom models. Now a race cars is like laboratory on wheels with nothing in common with street cars. Do you think the public is fooled into believing the Mercedes he buys has anything in common with Russell's car? Same for Renault, Toyota where they were in, Honda and else ... Now, racing is not necessary to start a brand, launch a new model or a different engine, etc... How many electric cars go racing? I don't know any. Yet electric cars are the fastest growing market in the car industry.
Since the mid-1990s racing was just "something to do" to pre-develop road car technology. First under body aerodynamics, then F1 transmissions, then variable intake tuning, then turbocharging.......somewhere in the middle they dropped Pininfarina and got their in house styling act together.
Well, you got some things wrong there. Many brands that you say don´t race actually are racing or have raced somewhere (rally, touring championships and so on). Then, it´s not all about number of cars sold but about brand image and buyer target. For Alfa Romeo racing is more useful than for Volvo (and still Volvo had to race when they wanted to get rid of their image of old man´s car, like Cadillac or Mercedes). Of course racing is not the only way of selling cars, but it still works. Because yes, there are electric cars racing too (ETCR and of course Formula E). One would think that the buyers of electric cars would be the least interested in racing, but one of the first things manufacturers of electric cars made to gain some legitimacy was racing. That alone shows the power of racing as a marketing tool.
Hi happy to see you. Join in..........it summer break. Start rumors, make friends or enhance further your enemies lol
Just read this today and thought it applies perfectly to this situation: “Once is happenstance,” Ian Fleming’s Auric Goldfinger tells the spy James Bond in the eponymous novel. “Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.” As in: Monaco/Silverstone/Hungary
Some time back, a friend (who is now deceased) worked for ACI. Was at Monza, and the powerbrokers of F1 got into his car to discuss who would be world champion that year. With that in mind, and the strategic errors of the Ferrari team, and the response from the principal, makes one wonder if it was decided in advance that Verstappen would be world champ?
It is more likely that it was decided that Hamilton would get his record breaking 8th championship (records are always good for the show!). Until the Latifi crash interfered.... Perfectly explains the total panic of Toto Wolff that day.
That's the way democracy works. The best way to stop ideas you don't like is to defeat them at the ballot box.
Hope it's not a repeat, I haven't seen it on here, and I don't see the lets laugh at F1 thread for some reason. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ah, I suspected so. I guess MV is the only one with a conventional grand slam and a sprint race win too ? Though of course, when we get things ironed out I am sure Chuck will get one of those as well. Or maybe his younger brother? Or son ? Sorry my mood is still ‘post Hungarian’ Back to the sun lounger
