James Allison: Kimi is as fast as Vettel, trouble is he's making too many mistakes, especially in Quali. Does this settle it? Kimi Raikkonen as fast as F1 team-mate Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com Rgds
If that were the case, I know who my money would be on to podium... and he would relish the challenge. And that is why he gets paid the amount he does, it makes no odds.
Well if merc aren't dominant and the car is able to do 6th-7th and a good driver gets it into 3-4th then they can jump many places in constructors standings and make a lot more money. Kimi vs alonso last year is a prime example. I apologised for that. No need to continually bring it up when I've already admitted to being wrong. No the car won't always be crap. But for these few years they are throwing money away. Then again they probably didn't know they were gonna suck so much. I think for ferrari it's the other way around... Ferrari will always sell merchandise. If a driver drives for them it makes the driver more popular. I can't envisage there being many Vettel fans following him around and then suddenly buying Ferrari merchandise. I think the shift will be more apparent with Mercedes who do not have that big of a following. Whereas Hamilton has a large following. Then again I could be completely wrong. No one should get big bucks for any sport really. Maybe a million or two. But at the end of the day formula 1 generates over a billion in revenue and we don't know what goes on behind closed doors. The drivers certainly deserve a fair share when you think about it from that perspective.
I think merc will be dominant till the end of this era. By this I mean if Lewis is in the car then they will win every wdc till regulations change (nico could probably get it done in most cases too if Lewis wasn't there). Ferrari and others will get closer and closer though and there will come a point where his talent will matter. E.g if Ferrari got closer next year - a Lewis in a Ferrari would probably beat a kimi in a merc. That's of course assuming Ferrari close the gap more.
Yes, I think you are wrong. It is true that Ferrari is selling merchandise anyway but people need a reason to buy it. If someone is Vettel or Kimi fan (and there are obviously many of them regarding the poll of F1) what would have been the reason to buy that stuff before they were joining the Scuderia. When you see these "public viewings" in Heppenheim or whatever the German television shows they are all in red when they were all in blue in the past, so obviously they all have changed their clothes. I think for Ferrari it would be best to change the driver every year to get new followers buying that stuff as once you have all that you do not necessarily need new onces every year. But certainly Ferrari is selling a lot more than Mercedes does...No matter who drives for them
a Lewis in a Ferrari would probably beat a kimi in a merc. That's of course assuming Ferrari close the gap more.[/QUOTE] Too bad he wasn't able to do so when both of them drove cars with similar performances...(2007).....
Agree that hammy would beat rosberg, but I never thought highly of rosberg. He's just not in that class of top drivers imho.
I think Rosberg gives Hamilton a good run for his money, don't you think? And these poles don't lie, do they? Rosberg is pretty quick, probably as quick as Hamilton, but he isn't as good racing wheel-to-wheel against someone as Hamilton is.
+1 to all right there! Nico is a *long* way from being the scrub some here seem to think. Despite the twins belief that Hammy can walk on water, cure world hunger and be a "fashionista" all at the same time, he's hardly "dominating" the guy. I've noted before, Hammy is one of the top 3, maybe 5 guys out there right now. But if you're gonna put him at, say, #2, Nico *has* to be in that same 5, if not right behind him, using the current state of play. Cheers, Ian
Rosberg vs Hamilton's salary, comes down to marketing ability. Rosberg is a driver that brings home fine results. Hamilton is a poster child that brings a lot of attention to the team, and and he's a driver that brings home fine results. One is worth more to a team looking for sponsor value than the other. Their pay reflects. You could put someone other than Hamilton in, and still be 1-2, but you won't get the attention doing it that Hamilton does.
At least at Ferrari they do...And looking at the merchandise vans at Goodwood they seemed to be well visited. I remember the Schumacher years when virtually everyone on the grandstands at Hockenheim or Nürburgring was clothed in red. I doubt that it is much less than in Football because the fans are all over the world and not that limited to areas and I remember having read that David Beckhams salary at Paris was paid by selling his jerseys. I could be wrong but i think it is a lot of money they make with that stuff...
Nico Rosberg; the Omar Sharif of motor racing, eh? Born from a Finn father and a German mother (?), raised in Monaco, fluent in several languages (French among them); a true cosmopolitan champion! Maybe this is too much to bear for the German public. Myself, I like the guy.
I asked the question as someone who NEVER bought any merchandise in my 55 years of watching motor racing.
I never felt the need to buy and wear team merchandise. Probably because I don't have tribal instinct. My interest is with drivers rathers than teams.
