FORUMula1.com

[stonemonkey]

I'm incensed, it reads more like a lynching, since you know... Lewis is black.

What! Nobody told me that.

[What's Burning?]

SKY Sports Mercedes might be sweeping all before them at present but Daimler AG's Chairman has admitted that boardroom discussions about their F1 future took place during leaner times.

Speaking at the Monaco GP, Dr Dieter Zetsche said that senior management at Mercedes' parent company had to sit down and weigh the cost of racing - estimated at around £160 million last year - against the team's success, or lack of.

It's something that seems assured for the foreseeable future now the Silver Arrows have proved themselves the class of the field after the sport's move to a hybrid formula.

Between re-entering F1 as a works outfit in 2010 and the current season, however, Mercedes managed just four wins and had to endure more than two years without success until Nico Rosberg took the chequered flag at the 2012 Chinese GP.

"There has to be an intelligent business decision and of course the motivation is marketing," Zetsche said. "We want to present our brand and we do believe there is no better place to present the brand than in our core marketing in our core business, which is engines, cars and therefore racing.

"Still, you have to justify your spending and see that you get results. And for that reason we had to have discussions.

"That took place. There was not one person in the boardroom who was against racing, others who were in favour. But we had to discuss all aspects and make the right decision in the interests of our company shareholders.

"That's where we came to the conclusion we're not a company for the short-term; what we do, we do for the long-run."

Even so, Daimler has moved to reduce its shareholding in the past couple of seasons, with Toto Wolff announced as Mercedes' commercial boss in January 2013 whilst also acquiring "a significant minority interest" in the team alongside Non-Executive Chairman Niki Lauda.

With Mercedes now committed to F1 until at least 2020, Zetsche also stressed the importance of the new, more energy-efficient, regulations to them.

"With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

[geetface9]

Glad to see the switch to v6 turbos paid off in the sense that mercedes want to stay and honda is joining mclaren next year. I do miss the v8 sounds but I'd sacrifice that for more manufacturers and engine providers.

[sagi58]

SKY Sports..."With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

And to underline just how important this was, without F1 making this switch, Mercedes would have left!

[What's Burning?]

SKY Sports..."With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

And to underline just how important this was, without F1 making this switch, Mercedes would have left!

... and Honda would not have joined and Renault would have also left since they were to first push for the change.

Ferrari would have been a force to be reckoned with!

[sagi58]

SKY Sports..."With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

And to underline just how important this was, without F1 making this switch, Mercedes would have left!

... and Honda would not have REjoined and Renault would have REGRETTED BEING THE first push for the change.

Ferrari would have been a force to be reckoned with!

Fixed that for you... And, you really shouldn't kick anyone when they're down, as Karma's a (b)itch!

[spankyham]

SKY Sports..."With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

And to underline just how important this was, without F1 making this switch, Mercedes would have left!

... and Honda would not have joined and Renault would have also left since they were to first push for the change.

Ferrari would have been a force to be reckoned with!

You might say Mercedes vetoed the V8s


Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[What's Burning?]

SKY Sports..."With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

And to underline just how important this was, without F1 making this switch, Mercedes would have left!

... and Honda would not have joined and Renault would have also left since they were to first push for the change.

Ferrari would have been a force to be reckoned with!

You might say Mercedes vetoed the V8s

I would look at it another way, Ferrari was the only one pushing to keep them. I'm amazed they didn't get their way frankly.

[sagi58]

...I would look at it another way, Ferrari was the only one pushing to keep them. I'm amazed they didn't get their way frankly.

Myth Buster, eh?

[sagi58]

Here's a link to an article that appeared on Autosport first; but, which you need a subscription to read.

By the way, is the Secret Mechanic related to the Horse Whisperer?

Secret Mechanic: the not-so-public F1 feuds

((For those with a subscription, here's the Autosport link: http://plus.autosport.com/premium/featu ... -f1-feuds/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ))

[Jabberwocky]

SKY Sports..."With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

And to underline just how important this was, without F1 making this switch, Mercedes would have left!

... and Honda would not have joined and Renault would have also left since they were to first push for the change.

Ferrari would have been a force to be reckoned with!

Or Cosworth

Sent using NCC-1701

[sagi58]

SKY Sports..."With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

And to underline just how important this was, without F1 making this switch, Mercedes would have left!

... and Honda would not have joined and Renault would have also left since they were to first push for the change.

Ferrari would have been a force to be reckoned with!

You might say Mercedes vetoed the V8s

I would look at it another way, Ferrari was the only one pushing to keep them. I'm amazed they didn't get their way frankly.

The FIA couldn't make them both happy, eh?
They went with Mercedes, who had the "veto" that counted, this time!

[What's Burning?]

SKY Sports..."With the objective to save fuel, be efficient and have very high performance, that's exactly what we have to do with our production cars and we use exactly the same technical components," he added.

And to underline just how important this was, without F1 making this switch, Mercedes would have left!

... and Honda would not have joined and Renault would have also left since they were to first push for the change.

Ferrari would have been a force to be reckoned with!

You might say Mercedes vetoed the V8s

I would look at it another way, Ferrari was the only one pushing to keep them. I'm amazed they didn't get their way frankly.

The FIA couldn't make them both happy, eh?
They went with Mercedes, who had the "veto" that counted, this time!

I think you missed the dialogue that transpired in the thread, no "veto" from Mercedes, it was Ferrari wanting something that Renault, Mercedes and Honda were not interested in. So the choice was 1) seeing every other team walk, or 2) keeping Ferrari happy. No other way to "spin" it even for a rib poke of a laugh.

[spankyham]

Renault and Mercedes pushed for change. Ferrari and Cosworth didn't want change.
The teams wanting change prevailed and we lost one engine supplier.
One more engine supplier is supposed to come in next year getting us back to where we were last year.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[What's Burning?]

Renault and Mercedes pushed for change. Ferrari and Cosworth didn't want change.
The teams wanting change prevailed and we lost one engine supplier.
One more engine supplier is supposed to come in next year getting us back to where we were last year.

Cosworth was never going to be financially sustainable with only one customer team. We can go around this as many times as you want, what the teams originally wanted was a 1.4 liter inline T. They (meaning all teams including Ferrari) agreed on a 1.6 liter T and a one year extension.

I bet I can come up with a much longer list of arguments for changing than the only argument for keeping them which is "they sound better".