No offense, but that was like saying RB wasn't going to build a car worth a damn last season after day 2 of testing, which they were still doing poorly. I love you man, but saying that about ANY team this early in the game is sort of out there.
I would love to see you look Ross Brawn in the face and tell him he doesn't know what he is doing. Funniest comment of 2011.
Quote: Originally Posted by tifosi12 Brawn GP: WDC Mercedes GP (of modern times): not a single victory Merc is running their F1 effort in the same failed way that Toyota and BMW did. F1 teams are only successful with short control spans, direct command structures and a "benevolent omnisavient dictator" at the top. Brawn was that figure at Brawn GP and to some degree at Benetton and Ferrari. At Merc he is just another employee following orders from the board. Really? You feel the need to quote yourself?
I guess 'the unions' and 'the board' are really up in arms lately, especially over horrible news like this FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--German car maker Daimler AG (DAI.XE) said Thursday it will pay a total of EUR125 million to its employees world-wide as an incentive payment for 2010. Daimler now sees $7.8 billion 2010 operating profit I'm pretty sure they can't afford an F1 team anymore, and don't have the finances to hire any talent. Your right, they don't know what they are doing. I was wrong. My bad.
RB is structured like a F1 team should be. Plus they have unlimited resources and the best designer and one of the currently best drivers. All things Merc doesn't have. Yes Merc has Brawn but on a short leash.
You can be sarcastic all you want. Fact is that their F1 team costs about 4 times more than what they pay in incentives. So go ahead and ask those unions and employees what they prefer: be a midfield F1 team or have a bonus 5 times bigger
While the German auto industry is having a great year they haven't forgotten how bad things looked not long ago. The free spending days are over.
Free spending is over for everyone. (except maybe Red Bull) Too many companies & industries were on the brink. Fiat included. Fiscal responsibility is the new mantra - even if your budget is 200 or 300 million....
Just to be clear on this: F1 is better off with Merc and I applaud them for trying. If they fail and resign it will be a sad day. Just as it was when Toyota, BMW etc quit That said I think they go about it in the wrong way and they're being dragged down by their board and unions.
They provided him with huge resources to build this car. They hired Toyota's suspension guy (he brought some of his guys) and they are paying him huge sums. Looking at what a drastic change W02 is vs W01 and anyone can tell the car was not a low-budget deal, but rather he was given carte blanche for 2011. Look at the Zytec kers unit, good god that thing could fund Virgin. If things are not very different this year, you are right, stuff will change. But for now, MB is serious. I have a feeling several teams are going to be in very different positions this year: Renault, Lotus, and very possibly Williams. Every great driver in the world is saying MB is a wild card and now things are looking serious. I know twitter doesn't count for much, but I am religiously watching what people present at Valencia are posting. Word on the street are three teams: MB, RB, and Renault. Oh, and Pireppi tires fall apart. That's about it. Merc most certainly knows where their money is going.
Losing MB (again) would be a much bigger loss but saying that the F1 team would be "dragged down" by the board and the unions is letting the tail wag the dog. The team, as high profile as it is, is just a small cog in the MB org.
You might be right. I'm not saying I have a crystal ball. Like everybody else I'm just guessing. A stronger Merc team would make it more interesting. We will see. My bet for the WDC though will be somewhere between Seb, Hami and Fred.
The "again" comment got me thinking. Yes it would be very different as it would be because of failure and not a tragedy while at the top of the game.
Thank you - that's exactly my point. A company with a profit of 8B in one year that has an F1 team division with a $300M budget (not sure what income the F1 team produces - anyone?) and 162,000 employees in Germany alone vs. 450 for the F1 team....... Bottom line is that the F1 team is the financial equivalant of a rounding error to the avergae board member. As for the union employees wanting a larger bonus? The $300M budget divided amongst 162,000 employees is a whopping $1812 per employee. They ain't exactly going to picket in front of Michael Schumacher's house for that amount of $$...... Now, let's go racing.....
'No pressure, no diamonds!' No doubt - just ask Ferrari. Failure is not well received in Italy..........
Everything in Italy involves "opera" (thank god) and ends with wine and a meal. In Germany failure is remembered for generations.
I love Luca. The guys is theatrical, although somewhat scary, "win or die"!, or at least "win or look for another job"!
No, it would be because of economics - the same reason every team leaves F1. Fact is, there are several big and well funded teams up top with a lot at stake. Red Bull, Renault, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes. And they are all *really* good at what they do. For any of us to call any of those guys failures for not being top is like calling a bronze medal Olympian a failure for not winning. You can be one of the best in F1 and still come in 5th...
