Chuckjr wrote: ↑03 Feb 2024, 18:42
mendis wrote: ↑03 Feb 2024, 17:55
I wonder where did this crap of Ambassador role emanated from? Anyone know if Lewis himself spoke about it ever? It's all just speculations and no official comments on the affirmative.
Agree.
Lewis has never so much as turned a wheel in a Ferrari, never even won a race with them, yet alone a championship, and he’s going to be the face of Ferrari when he retires?? What kind of idiot idea is that? That’s like Tom Brady becoming an ambassador for the Chicago Bears. Or Michael Jordan becoming ambassador for the Nicks. I mean, who thinks of this?
What happens if Lewis fails to beat Shal? What happens if he fails to even win a race? There’s zero guarantee he will be successful and I’m to believe Ferrari just unloaded a half billion dollar truck and the keys to the future kingdom of Ferrari for a quickly aging dude to spend on his outside F1 woke agenda fantasies when he retires? Come on man. That makes ZERO sense.
Nothing happens to Hamilton, nothing happened to Schumacher when he came back to Mercedes. When Rossi moved to Ducati nobody thought less of him afterwards because he didn't win a championship like Stoner did.
This also is not similar to Tom Brady at all, but if we want to go there, Brady was always talked about as a system QB that without Belichick wouldn't have won anything, so he needed to prove himself the GOAT by winning with another team, and he also beat Mahomes in doing so, cementing himself the GOAT. So the challenge is there for Lewis, doing it with Ferrari has unlimited upside for him. Ferrari has taken out a dangerous rival from competition. And F1 brands aren't football teams, they have products to sell and marketing to run. Lewis has been a Ferrari customer for decades, is a driver, in fact potentially the GOAT depending on the next few years, Ferrari would be absolutely mad to not take the whole package, including engineers, that are coming with Lewis and use it for the next decade+ of marketing initiatives having the GOAT driving for you. $100mil/yr is a drop in the bucket.
I bet nobody in Ferrari management could believe what they were witnessing as this was unfolding. For how much they are clowned in memes, Vasseur has been an absolute sniper.
EDIT: I'll add, Schumacher remained beloved by Ferrari fans after the move, they instead blamed Ferrari for letting him retire, this is only fuel for a marketing campaign as it shows how broad the appeal of Lewis' brand is.