Mercedes has no thoughts whatsoever about reassessing its commitment to formula one. The German carmaker left McLaren to become its own works team at the start of the decade, and in the new 'power unit' era has been utterly dominant.
That recent success, however, has been thanks to a huge annual budget, but team boss Toto Wolff insists it is worth every cent and more. "We have very precise figures, in fact," he told the Austrian newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper. "In the last season we generated 3 billion dollars in advertising value, meaning that is the sum we would have to invest in TV and print advertising to achieve a similar result to our commitment in F1," added Wolff.
He said Mercedes therefore has no thoughts at all about quitting the sport. "As we saw with Toyota and BMW etcetera, many teams come and go. But with us it is something different. The first Mercedes that was ever built was a racing car. Motor sport is in our DNA, and even hard times would not change this," Wolff insisted. (GMM)
Replies (4)
Login to replyPompey
Posts: 84
What goes up will come down, ask Red Bull.
talktohenry
Posts: 362
They'll be the first to leave, there is a few ''tree huggers'' on the board, and paid advertising where you give a very controlled message on prime time TV is very different than the publicity you get in F1, so not really comparable, it's kust different.............I could be wrong and I hope they stay, but once they stop winning the bean counters, and tree huggers, start to get their voice heard!
khasmir
Posts: 893
I guess that is one way to compare figures but you can prove anything by presenting certain numbers in a certain way. There is no real way to know if this was good or bad publicity and if this has generated extra revenue for Merc.
It could just as well have been very bad and expensive publicity ;)
talktohenry
Posts: 362
If definitely good and overall, it's about long term brand building, and that has a value...and that's one of the reasons why Merc are a top brand, they get involved with and associate themselves with the right sports such as F1.