Join Grace and me as we review Formula 1 news of the week. We cover more Bottas, Williams, Button and Grosjean news that you can shake a stick at. We even share our unpopular opinions on what Mercedes should do regarding their Lewis Hamilton contract negotiations.
"You can't take F1 to America, you have to take America to F1."
Negative Camber
Chief Opinion Officer, TPF
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ha ha, safety is no longer the trump card, it has been replaced by the George Russel Card
LOL…yes, my notion of three trump cards (safety, cost, sustainability) have just been joined by the George Russell card. ;)
Hamilton’s wins are already the ‘equity ambassador’. Ferrari doesn’t need Michael kicking around the garage for everyone to remember their dominant era, and nor does Merc need HAM. Plus, does Merc care that much about Lewis’ record, or the team’s record? Because sans Lewis, Bottas would bring them another consecutive championship, and of course George is in waiting. I don’t think Lewis has a card to play really. Though not privy to the conversations, I imagine they go like Lewis saying, “Well how about this?” And Wolfff coming back with “No.” “Okay but what about this?” “No”. Plus I think… Read more »
I think waiting as long as he did seemed to be the right strategy until George drove. I think that weakened the leverage but he still is a 7-time champ and that carries a lot of weight regardless of how quick George is. All negotiating tactics.
From a political point of view, any time you engage in a political stance, you’re going to appeal to some while distracting others.
I wonder who would have to pay LHs salary for a role as “ambassador”. If he would be a team advisor like JB, it would of course come from the race team. But a brand ambassador? That would have to be paid by the car company, no? Any money being tight at the mothership these days, I am not sure they would be willing to pay a lot.
I suspect it would be at the corporate level but the team is a separate entity from Merc corp. Merc own 1/3 of it, right? So if he is thinking the equity ambassador role would be with the team, I don’t see that coming out of the team budget because that’s a very tight balance sheet as it is. That would most likely find him wanting to leverage the team’s pull with corporate to do something for Mercedes proper instead of just the team. That’s my hunch, could be completely wrong.
That’s my guess too. But then completely different people have to sign the pay check. And remember, in Germany the labor unions sit on the boards of big corporations like Daimler. So they really need convincing, that he is worth the money he is asking.
From a teams perspective, LH surely does not come cheap, but he also delivers. Not only on track, but also in attention outside. So if I were one of the smaller sponsors with stickers on the car, and Lewis would leave, I would call Toto and ask for a reduction of my fee.
What I think is likely part of the story is that the LH $$$ ask is huge and is a tough sell for corporate (as discussed)… because I reconthe growth Merc needs is in the US. The unfortunate side of that is that F1 awareness in the US is low. They would undoubtedly have done their market research and it would likely indicate correspondingly that Mercedes F1 awareness is also low (just ask a few US peeps “who Lewis Hamilton” and you will see what I mean) and therefore a lower priority to put your Covid dollars too. So for… Read more »
The conversation about funding a LH salary for awareness in markets that aren’t saturated with his brand or even aligned with the Mercedes brand / message has to be a challenging one inside the boardroom.