Penske to buy Mercedes ?

Wow.

 

Wow, Wow!!!
And Red Bull-Mercedes? very difficult future for Ferrari.

 

It’d be an interesting deal for him to buy the F1 team on the condition that MB makes IndyCar engines.

 

Make IndyCar engines as in design a new one from scratch or swap the F1 MB engine into an IndyCar? Honda could swap theirs over with those rules no problem...not sure what Chevy would do...give up I guess haha.

 

Hi Indy. Has been a long time since F1 was there Goodbye Miami or Vegas lol

 

Penske in F1. Fantastic. I hope it happens.

 

What's the old joke..."How do you make a small fortune in auto racing? You start with a big fortune." The only reason I can see for him to buy a losing proposition is for the tax write off of the loss. Mercedes doesn't make money if F1, it just spends it there. Now if he bought F1 and then merged Indy cars and F1, that would be a better business model. Consolidation of the two series could give a solid field of cars and drivers and totally rewrite all the rules. And it would bring in teams that know how to run tight ships. You could actually throw out the slowest cars and still have an easy 20 to 24 cars on the grid. And you could return to a series with multiple engine configurations...hybrid vs pure gasoline engines...no capacity limits. And get away from 12 guys to change four tires and all the other overkill.

 

So, if I read that right, under Penske Mercedes would be supplier to ... Mercedes, McLaren, Williams, Racing Point plus Red Bull and its satelite Toro Rosso?
That's 6 teams out of 10 !!!

So much for those who accused Mercedes of hegemony and domination in the past !

 

Penske has been in F1 before, with Mark Donohue and John Watson; they won 1 GP before leaving.

 

Where does this guy get the money from? Selling meth? He had just bought half of American motorsport and now this.

Personally I don't want Mercedes out till they are beaten, dead and buried.

 

Roger Penske has such a good pedigree in business and motor racing , that he finds backers for his business.
He didn't start with a personal fortune, but demonstrated a solid business acumen that attracted investors.
That's the secret of his success, I think.

 

That would be a most impressive acquisition and way for the captain to return to F1 plus it would hugely boost F1 popularity in the US. I hope they find a better venue than Indy for a second US GP though.

 

https://www.penske.com/
https://www.penske.com/our-companies/

 

OK, but that doesn't tell you how Penske built his empire. He didn't start with a fortune.
Like most entrepreneurs, the captain looked for opportunities, studied the market, wrote a credible business plan, then attracted investors and convinced them to put money in his new venture. Then, he managed soundly his business, made profit and kept the shareholders happy. You need skill to do that repeatedly.
People aren't afraid of backing him up, because he is a successful businessman who inspires confidence.

 

He stopped racing to buy a Chevy dealership. He took the profits from that first dealership and bought more, and kept growing. It all started with the one dealership.

 

He had some money to start. Now I think he is getting up there in age and is building a huge legacy. Kind of funny he started with tight racing connections to GM and Chevrolet back in the early 1960's. He helped run the factory Corvette Gransport team for Chevrolet and even assisted with the secret GM team Chaparral.

 

Penske bought his first Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia by borrowing the money from GM, I read.
But he had to stop racing as part of the deal, since GM didn't want its investment to be insecure.

 

Penske didn't have nowhere near enough money to start a business, but he had connections in the automotive sector and motor racing.
He inspired trust and GM invested in him to buy and redress a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia that had been neglected.
Penske threw all his business knowledge and enthusiasm to turn it around in a short time, and within a few years expanded to other dealerships.

 

Roger's first wife was an heir to Stouffer Foods.

 

[QUOTE="johnireland, post: 146906749, member: 206241"

Mercedes doesn't make money if F1, it just spends it there.

[/QUOTE]

How do you explain that the Mercedes-AMG F1 team declared a profit last year again?
They have to balance the books to provide a dividend to their shareholders (MB, Toto Wolffe, the Lauda family and and a few others).
Being registered as a British company, they can not fail to declare a profit for more than 3 years under Company Law.

 

How do you explain that the Mercedes-AMG F1 team declared a profit last year again?
They have to balance the books to provide a dividend to their shareholders (MB, Toto Wolffe, the Lauda family and and a few others).
Being registered as a British company, they can not fail to declare a profit for more than 3 years under Company Law.[/QUOTE]

Mercedes-AMG F1 team receives a net contribution of about £40M from Daimler AG (paying for "marketing", and getting some money back for supplying the engines), according to https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-finances-2018-profit-accounts/4551461/. So the F1 team is a marketing expense for Daimler-Benz; btw I think all F1 teams (considered as independent business entities) are about break-even.

 

Yes, I realize that, of course. It’s a shame he didn’t stay longer. I hope this isn’t just an empty rumor. He’s an amazing man. He is singlemindedly focused on success, no matter what the venture, and he has the ability to inspire others, from bankers to janitors, to work as a team to achieve a worthwhile goal.

 

how many dealerships does Penske own now? seems like they are everywhere

he owns the Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Range Rover and others here in Scottsdale

 

Looks like 423.
https://www.penskeautomotive.com/CustomPage/Index?KeyGenPage=429675

Plus hundreds of commercial truck rental locations
https://www.pensketruckrental.com/locations/