Its about funding and how far they go down each respective 'rabbit hole' knowing each race is 1 closer to 2026 regs. Better you do the less development time you get. Its closer as long as Max allows it to be. Ferrari are somewhat closer but thats before RedBull apply any major upgrade as well. Fascinating but Im attempting realism today lol
I'll counter with Jackie Stewart's response that "Lewis Hamilton's WDC titles have an unfair advantage." Choose your poison. F1 drivers opinions are like @$$holes, everyone has one.
Prost has no right to say that. Each year the conditions for the championship are different, and the rules also change from time to time. The WDC cannot do better that year, within the parameters he has to compete.
Right. Some fans opinions are like @$$holes too, everyone has one. I rember Jackie made that comment, the response here was different than yours.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-becomes-first-f1-team-to-exceed-500m-turnover/10599291/ Mercedes becomes first F1 team to exceed £500m turnover Mercedes has become the first Formula 1 team to exceed a turnover of £500 million, according to its latest published accounts. The company that runs the squad, Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd., declared a turnover for 2023 of £546.5 million, which covers the year that ended December 31. This figure represents an increase of £71.9 million over the 2022 figure of £474.6 million. As a comparison, Red Bull Technology, the company behind Red Bull’s F1 team, had a turnover of £385.6m in 2022. However, despite the increase in turnover at Mercedes, the Brackley-based outfit reported a slight fall in profits – down to £83.8 million from the £89.7m it declared in 2022. This is the result of a combination of factors that includes both increased costs and higher payments of tax in the 2023 financial year. Race car development assets, which are carried forward to the following season, went up from £41 million in 2022, to £52.2 million last year. This higher figure included in part the extra investment needed to change its 2024 F1 challenger, which required a new chassis for this season. The £52.2m figure also includes the early work that the team was able to do in producing the 2023 gearbox and suspension parts that have been supplied to customer Williams this year, which was able to be completed before the 2024 components used by Aston Martin. Mercedes also reported a big increase in average staffing levels, up by 175 to 1289 last year, compared to 1114 in 2022. This resulted in its salary bill jumping by £29.6 million to £111.7m from the £82.1 million it declared in 2022 – although part of this was caused by the increased staff bonuses handed out for the team finishing second in the constructors’ championship rather than the third of the previous season. There were also some tax elements at play in the final profit calculation. The team’s 2022 figures included a deferred tax asset, which meant its profits last year were unusually good. This, allied to the government increasing the corporation tax rate to 25% in April 2023 from 19% in 2022, means Mercedes’ bill jumped by £23.7 million from £8.6 million in 2022 to £32.5m last year. The contrast in tax payments year on year had a big impact on overall profit, but the business seems to be on a very solid foundation with its EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax) being pretty stable. It was £113.8 million for the year ended 2023, compared to £113.6 million in 2022. While Mercedes finished 2023 in second place in the F1 constructors' championship behind Red Bull, improving on its 2022 performance, it also reported a decline in the coverage it got on television because it delivered fewer podiums. However, other factors showed strong growth. In a declaration in the filings, Mercedes stated: “The team’s share of television coverage showed a small decline to 14.7% for 2023, reflecting the lower number of podium finishes the team enjoyed versus 2022. “The cumulative Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) remained strong for commercial partners and shareholders, at $5.3 billion. The team continued to grow strongly on social media, with a cumulative followership of 36 million (+15%) and a total of 465 million engagements (+9%). “During 2023, the team welcomed seven new commercial partners and introduced a world-class hospitality offering at the Las Vegas Grands Prix, to serve the increased demand for VIP race attendance as F1 continues to grow globally. In July, Forbes estimated the value of the team to be $3.8 billion.”
I must be the only one not buying into the hype of Antonelli. Sure he has won all his regional events, but now in F2 against the world's best junior drivers he hasn't done anything.
I read somewhere that Toto Wolff is delaying his decision to name Hamilton's replacement, because he wants to see how Antonelli is doing this year. Really ? Is he serious ?
That would erase all the hardwork he did, getting a reputation for being one of the best, most cut throat team bosses in F1. Ludicrous to consider a rookie in one of the 3 major teams, especially since he isn't even producing results in F2. Even Mick Schumacher was an F2 champ. Then again, maybe he is just fanning the flame as I think the kid has a Mercedes contract and Toto knows the value of hype.
As an effective TP Wolff is done - with too many errors over the past few years. He should let someone better replace him. Toto will probably sell his stake in a couple of years anyway.
He probably will—after he milks Elkann out of a ton of money, he’ll return to his avowed true love, the team that helped him rack up a hundred wins in the absence of any competition.
Wait - Rosberg, Vettel etc. No competition. You accused another member of trolling. Have another drink lol.
I’m talking about the team, troll. Rosberg was teammate and he got beat by him and soon replaced by lackey Bottas. As for Vettel… LOL—you were the first to ridicule your own countryman. Only in the last year of the previous regulations did anyone get close and he was, in fact, beaten. But back to your your usual contributions, don’t you have some complete Autosport articles to cut and paste to fill pages here?
I don't think you're looking closely enough. Prema are clearly on the back foot with the new-this-year F2 car, but Antonelli has scored higher results with each weekend, finishing sixth and then fourth in the last two feature races to lead teammate Ollie Bearman in the points 24 to 2. For being with a team outside the set-up window, he's making rapid progress – especially for jumping straight from FRECA to F2 without running F3. Like his namesake Raikkonen, who went straight from Formula Renault to F1 with Sauber at age 17, this kid's got it...
lets try not ignore the fact that Bearman qualified on pole in Jeddah (2 points) but because he was substituting for Sainz, that pole got taken away as any possibility for points in both races.
I'm not dissing Ollie at all – quite the opposite. My point is how well Antonelli is doing compared to another star in the making...
I admit to not following the F2 races at all. This gives some insight to why we aren't seeing wins yet. Thanks
So Russell is now saying 'listen to me' lol. George knows best Yo..........just add downforce ok?? Listen to me. LH is leaving --From Russell’s perspective, Mercedes needs to move away from analysis of finding a perfect set-up and go back to the more standard approach of focusing on aggressive development and a run of upgrades. “I think there is no silver bullet,” he explained. “We just need to keep on adding performance and focusing on the basics, which is in the wind tunnel and in the CFD: just adding downforce. Maybe sometimes it's as simple as that.”--
